Bahrain Mirror: Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa has denounced the Arab boycott of Israel, in recent statements revealing the direction Gulf States are taking towards normalizing relations with Israel.

Israeli news outlets quoted Hamad saying that his "subjects are free to visit the Jewish state."

The Jerusalem Post highlighted that the statement by the head of the Persian Gulf country, which does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, was revealed at a multi-national event last week in Los Angeles, hosted by the city's Simon Wiesenthal Center.

At the event, Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, who head the Wiesenthal Center, revealed the king's pronouncements made to them during their visit to Manama, Bahrain's capital city, in early 2017, the Israeli newspaper noted.

Bahraini King's Declaration of Worldwide Religious Tolerance was unveiled at the historic Wiesenthal Center Interfaith event in the Los Angeles last week. The paper noted that the Bahrain National Orchestra, conducted by Field Marshal Mubarak Najem, played the Israeli anthem "Hatikva" preceded by the Bahraini and US national anthems.

When Hier and Cooper met with King Hamad, they discussed the ruler's plan to establish a Museum of Religious Tolerance in the capital city by the end of this year, added The Jerusalem Post.

The Bahraini King's remarks come less than a week after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described relations with the Arab world better than ever. "What's happening now with the Arab bloc states has never before happened in our history- even when we signed agreements," said Netanyahu. "What we have now is greater than anything else during any other period in Israel's history."

Arabic Version