UK ministers in urgent talks with Baghdad over death penalty for contacting Israel

The UK government dramatically intervened last night over new Iraqi legislation that will see any citizen who makes contact with Israel or Israelis face the death penalty.

Baghdad aims to rubber stamp its new “anti-normalisation” law within days, which threatens either execution or life imprisonment to anyone having even minimal contact with Israel or Israelis. It is likely to have a far-reaching effect as it covers foreign nationals in Iraq and Iraqi nationals outside Iraq.

The drafting extends to Iraqis visiting Israeli embassies or Israeli-linked organisations overseas. Britain’s Baghdad-born education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, a strong supporter of Israel, could be affected.

Following a concerted campaign by Jewish News, urging the UK government to take a stand on behalf of the Jewish community, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office told this newspaper last night: “We are deeply concerned by reports that the Iraqi Parliament is planning to criminalise normalisation of relations with Israel, including by death.

“We are monitoring the situation closely and making representations to the Iraqi authorities. The UK stands with the Jewish community and we have a long-standing track record of standing up for the rights of people of all religions and all beliefs.” It is rare for the UK to criticise a foreign government’s domestic policies in this way.

The proposed law, which has had two readings in the Iraqi parliament and which analysts said would be “nodded through” later this week, also drew an angry response from Steve McCabe MP, chair of Labour Friends of Israel.

In a letter to Foreign Secretary Truss, he described the legislation as “outrageous and extremely troubling”. He said that the move “flies in the face of recent positive trends in the Middle East” and that its timing, in the week that Britain hosted the spring conference of the Iraqi-British Business Council, was “deeply Together with a embarrassing”. The bill, been described as “barbaric”, is entitled Banning Normalisation and Establishment of Relations with the Zionist Entity. It would be the most punitive anti-Israel law in the Arab world. Once enacted, the law would cover all of Iraq, including the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan.

It would be the most punitive anti-Israel law in the Arab world. Once enacted, the law would cover all of Iraq, including the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan.

Iraq’s ruling coalition is headed by anti-Western Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who introduced the bill. His cousin, Jaafar al-Sadr, is Iraq’s ambassador to the UK and speaker at this week’s Iraq Britain Business Council (IBBC) conference in London, which promised “networking and business opportunities”.

The IBBC is sponsored by UK companies, including Standard Chartered, BP, Shell, Mott MacDonald, G4S, PWC and Serco, as well as the University of Northampton and Bath Spa University.

Muqtada al-Sadr, described by many as ‘the absolute kingmaker’ of the next Iraqi government, has also issued a proclamation that at Friday prayers, worshippers must shout out “No, No to Israel, No No, to normalisation, No, No to the occupier”.

Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, who is the prime minister’s trade envoy for Iraq and president of the IBBC, was due to chair a meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Iraq in parliament on Wednesday, where the proposed law was on the agenda. She said a number of Iraqi MPs were due to attend this session and that the IBBC was a “non-political” body and was therefore not in a position to issue any comment on the intended legislation.

Lord Howell of Guildford, who was keynote speaker at the IBBC conference, had not previously been aware of the intended law and what he called its “horrific measures”, but told Jewish News he believed it was being discussed by British MPs and “is of obvious concern”.

The bill bans “contact and communication of any kind and means with the occupying Zionist entity, its nationals, and representatives, whether individuals or institutions or organisations, for any reason”.

It also bans any “financial or moral assistance” to Israel or Israeli organisations. Anyone found guilty would face “execution or lifelong imprisonment”.

The bill bans “contact and communication of any kind and means with the occupying Zionist entity, its nationals, and representatives, whether individuals or institutions or organisations, for any reason”.

Board of Deputies vice-president Edwin Shuker, who was born in Iraq, called the bill “barbaric” and “an affront to Iraq and the good people of Iraq with whom we grew up, who desire peace, and to reconnect with Iraqi Jews wherever they have been displaced”.

He said: “This is state-sponsored terrorism against civilians and I for one have shelved any plans to visit the country or to connect with it, even though I am a British citizen.

“I call on the British government to demand clarifications and to take the appropriate measures against such brutality.”