On the 9th anniversary of the arbitrary arrest of the Bahraini opposition leader, the need for Sheikh Ali Salman to stand side by side with Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, Bahrain’s highest Shiite religious authority (who has been living in exile in Iran since 2019) to implement their exceptional and strategic vision for a sovereign Bahrain is highly underscored.

Without a doubt, if he were free, Sheikh Ali Salman would have been the most influential leader in curbing the shameful normalization process with the enemy of the nation, the occupier of Palestine, and the director of the current horrific genocidal war in Gaza.

Sheikh Ali Salman will - on December 28 - mark 9 years behind bars. The leader of Bahrain’s largest opposition group, Al-Wefaq, was arrested on December 28, 2014. He was initially sentenced to 4 years in prison. As he neared the end of his sentence, he was accused of bogus espionage charges with Qatar and sentenced to life in prison. 

His Eminence was once asked, "How do you view your imprisonment?" He seemed very reassured as he answered, “I only have one concern: I cannot serve my people while I am under arrest.” If he were free, he would not have been satisfied without supporting Palestine and its oppressed people. How could he, as throughout his entire honorable history, has been an advocate for this helpless country? Rather, if he were free, Sheikh Ali Salman would have made every effort to drop and confront the shameful normalization project.

Despite his harsh prison conditions, the populist leader is still proposing ways that can save the people of Bahrain from tyranny; its most difficult form today is the interference of the Zionists in the joints of the state and its affairs. This position is completely consistent with the context of his message last year, as he stressed that he still bears the people’s concerns on his shoulders and is concerned about his country becoming “a home for global Zionism.”

In the same letter last year, Sheikh Ali Salman expressed his concern about the infiltration of corruption into all state facilities, as Bahrain has sunk into public debt and permanent economic deficit. What troubles the brave Bahraini leader the most is wasting people’s dignity and viewing them as “subjects, not citizens.” The un-elected monarch tyrannizes them and turns them into servants of his family members.

Following the arbitrary arrest of Sheikh Salman in 2014, Bahrain’s status quo has indeed deteriorated for the worse. The tiny archipelago has turned into a large prison in which the Zionists hold the keys to solving and binding. Then, after the death of the former Prime Minister (uncle of the current king), Khalifa bin Salman, in 2020, the country was divided between the sons of “His Greatest Majesty," as he calls himself [N.B. In May 2022, Bahrain’s monarch, Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa of Bahrain, ordered his royal title to be changed from “His Majesty” to “His Greatest Majesty” in reports, as well as in official speeches and correspondences].

This aforementioned feudal division is exactly like the one brought down by the “Baharna Uprising” during the 1922 popular uprising. The most prominent monarch’s son, Salman (The Crown Prince) manages half of Bahrain’s economy, including companies, taxes, and lands. His half-brother and so-called national security advisor, Nasser Al Khalifa, takes over the oil and gas sector.

During the current year, it has been publicly revealed that Bahrain is directed by Zionist advisors. In November of last year, Israel’s "National Security" Advisor Eyal Hulata led a delegation from "Tel Aviv" on their visit to the headquarters of the US 5th Fleet in Bahrain. Hulata attended too a security conference in Manama.

Sheikh Ali Salman’s speeches about corruption and waste of public money explain why the monarch has relentlessly strived to get rid of his conscious political presence. For the monarch, Sheikh Ali Salman’s arbitrary arrest has been a necessity before imposing normalization.

For instance, the trade agreements that Manama rushed to sign with "Tel Aviv" have failed miserably in erasing the effects of corruption and the seizure of public funds and have rather even deepened the crises. The bilateral cooperation, which the former Bahraini Minister of Industry Zayed al-Zayani was emphasizing for its significant repercussions, did not exceed an actual value of $7.5 million in 2021. This figure is economically unreliable.

The intentional incarceration of Sheikh Ali Salman in the notorious Jau Central prison along with the rest of the opposition leaders has been accompanied by a package of brutal steps, the most prominent of which are dividing Bahrain feudally; eliminating the political opposition; engineering a mock parliament; improvising the citizens; looting the rights of retirees; skyrocketing prices; raising public debt to record levels that are incompatible with the incomes of any oil country (Bahrain produces 200 thousand barrels per day); and distorting Bahrain’s political and religious identity i.e. Pro-Palestine, Pro-Resistance.

In a segment of a speech he delivered before his arrest, the opposition leader revealed that the authorities were threatening to “imprison, kill, and banish” him. Sheikh Ali Salman said the threats were being made via text messages, online, and even through Bahrain’s official Gazette. He revealed both he and his wife were being haunted. “They accused me of false charges to influence my political position,” he explained.

When “His Majesty” leaned toward signing the shameful agreements with the Israeli colonial entity, he imagined that the so-called “Abraham Agreements” would open the door to security superiority over the Bahrainis, so that he would easily hack every home through the enemy’s advanced espionage techniques like NSO’s Pegasus spyware, so he can grab their necks and threaten them with this card. Nevertheless, this has only made them more indignant against his reckless tyrannical policies that have betrayed the dignity of the nation and its central cause, Palestine.

Now, after 9 lean years that have passed for Bahrain, the government of Qatar must - morally, humanely, and legally - intervene to redress the injustice of Sheikh Ali Salman by dropping the fabricated espionage charges that were - arbitrarily and maliciously - imposed against him. As for the states unconditionally supporting Bahrain’s ruling family, chiefly the US and the UK, they must stand - even for once - with the demands of the people and their efforts to lift the illegal guardianship over them and mainly today sever ties with the apartheid colonial regime.

Regarding the ruling family, it must come down from the tree of arrogance, superiority, and deception. It must stop the illegal schemes of normalization with the Zionist colonial entity. It must stop its miserable endeavor to distort the national identity of Bahrain, as those Zionists, whom they bet on to gain power over their people and suppress them, are themselves incapable of protecting their illegitimate survival and will be expelled from all the occupied Palestinian and Arab territories, as His Eminence Sheikh Ali Salman used to confirm. Besides, Bahrain’s ruling family must stop targeting the political and religious figures who support Palestine as the future of the nation is victory and humiliation for the imperialist occupier.

Amid the brutal genocidal war on Gaza and southern Lebanon, we remember Sheikh Ali Salman’s plight, which, despite all the neglect and obliteration it has faced at all levels, is still strongly present. Sheikh Ali Salman is an exceptional leader whose political thought rejected Bahrain’s transformation into a policeman for the occupation entity in the Arabian Peninsula. He is truly an “advocate for Palestine.”