By Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute
US President Donald J. Trump recently said that he has never heard of a Lebanese law banning contact with Israel. “I never heard of that, but… I’m pretty sure that’ll be ended very quickly,” Trump told reporters. “I know Lebanon doesn’t want that… That’s crazy.”
Trump is right. These laws are “crazy.” They are also poisonous.
So long as Arabs and Muslims are taught by law, religion and social pressure that contact with Israelis is forbidden, the prospects for peace and coexistence will remain out of reach.
There can be no real stability in the Middle East while anti-normalization laws and campaigns persist. Such laws and campaigns only empower extremists and terrorists who seek Israel’s and the region’s destruction.
Trump is reportedly seeking to invite Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a meeting in the White House as part of an effort to achieve peace and stability between Lebanon and Israel. If Aoun, however, were to accept Trump’s invitation to meet Netanyahu at the White House, he would effectively be violating Lebanon’s own anti-normalization law, which prohibits all economic, professional, cultural, or social relations between Lebanese nationals and Israeli citizens and entities.
Lebanon’s anti-normalization law, rooted in the 1955 Boycott Law and reinforced by the penal code, prohibits virtually all contact with Israel, which is classified as an “enemy state.”
The law goes even further. It bars any person or legal entity, directly or indirectly, from engaging in any transaction — commercial, financial, or otherwise — with individuals or organizations linked to Israel.
The penalties are severe. Violators can face prison terms ranging from three to ten years with hard labor, in addition to fines, professional bans, and the confiscation of goods.
What may sound “crazy” in Washington is, in fact, standard practice in several Arab and Islamic countries. Lebanon is not the exception; it is the rule.
Legislation to prevent countries from establishing normal relations with Israel has existed in the region for decades. Countries such as Syria and Iraq have long maintained sweeping prohibitions on contact with Israelis, with penalties that have included life imprisonment and even death.
On May 26, 2022, Iraq’s parliament passed the “Criminalizing Normalization and Establishment of Relations with the Zionist Entity” law, which unanimously prohibits any diplomatic, political, economic, or cultural ties with Israel. Violations, including supporting “Zionist ideas” via social media, can incur life imprisonment or the death penalty.
Since then, Iraqi authorities have filed legal complaints against several political activists and bloggers, accusing them of supporting Israel. “One of the primary figures named in the complaints is Ghaith al-Tamimi, an Iraqi political activist living abroad. Al-Tamimi is known for his strong criticism of Iran and its affiliated factions within Iraq,” according to The New Arab media outlet.
“Al-Tamimi has been accused of using his social media platforms to make statements that were interpreted as supportive of Israeli actions in Gaza and Lebanon. This has sparked outrage within Iraq, where any perceived support for Israeli operations is considered a violation of the country’s laws.”
In another case, the Karkh Criminal Court in Baghdad sentenced a man to life imprisonment for promoting the “Zionist entity” (Israel) on social media. According to the Supreme Judicial Council, the defendant, whose identity has not been released, published photos and videos on Facebook supporting normalization with Israel. Authorities also found Hebrew-language books and newspapers in his home.
In Kuwait, similar laws – backed by parliamentary legislation and Islamic religious rulings – criminalize normalization with Israel and treat it as an act of treason. A few years ago, the Criminal Court in Kuwait issued a three-year prison sentence with hard labor against renowned media personality Fajr al-Saeed, who had publicly called for normalization with Israel.
Even Egypt, which signed a peace treaty with Israel more than four decades ago, has a law that authorizes the revocation of Egyptian citizenship if a national is “qualified as Zionist.” The Egyptian government has used this law, passed in 1975, to revoke the citizenship of Egyptians who marry Israeli nationals.
These laws are frequently reinforced not only by governments, but also by influential religious institutions such as Cairo’s Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, the premier institution of Sunni Islam, which has issued rulings banning all forms of non-governmental contact with Israelis and framing normalization as religiously forbidden.
Another prominent Islamic body, the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), has issued a fatwa (Islamic ruling) forbidding normalization with Israel. The ruling came in response to the normalization agreement signed between Israel and the United Arab Emirates more than five years ago. According to IUMS, normalization agreements are “not reconciliations or truces… rather, they are a concession of the holiest and most blessed of lands and a recognition of the legitimacy of the occupying enemy [Israel].”
The purpose of these laws and religious rulings is clear: to deter, punish, and stigmatize any form of coexistence with Israel. By criminalizing people-to-people engagement, Arab and Muslim leaders and institutions send a powerful message to their populations: peace with Israel is not merely undesirable, but a crime. This message is reinforced through media campaigns, professional blacklisting, and public accusations of “treason” against those who dare to engage with Israelis.
If Trump is serious about presenting himself as a peacemaker, his surprise at Lebanon’s law should be only the beginning. The real challenge lies in confronting a deeply entrenched system of boycotts, legal restrictions, and incitement against Israel across the Arab and Islamic worlds.
Where peace is illegal, peace is impossible.
The US maintains close ties with several Arab and Islamic countries where laws and campaigns banning normalization with Israel remain in force. Washington has diplomatic, economic, and political leverage with many of the countries that enforce these laws. The question is whether it is willing to use it.
Originally published at Gatestone Institute
