Jewish woman to be Bahrain's envoy to U.S.
SANA ABDALLAH
Published: May 30, 2008
U.S. President George W. Bush brandishing a sword he received as a present from Bahrain's King Hamad Bin Isa al-Khalifa (R) in Manama on Jan. 12. The appointment by Bahrain's king of a Jewish woman as ambassador to Washington, D.C. is intended to show the U.S. that the kingdom does not discriminate on the grounds of religion or gender. (Balkis Press/ABACAUSA via Newscom)
AMMAN -- The tiny Gulf state of Bahrain has become the first Arab country to appoint a Jewish woman as an ambassador to the most important world capital, Washington, D.C., in an unusual move that could set an interesting precedent in Arab diplomacy.

Huda Ezra Ibrahim Nonoo, 43, was formally named this week by Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa as an ambassador to a yet-undisclosed country, but she confirmed to local reporters that she would be posted to the U.S. capital.

Nonoo, a mother of two boys, made a point of emphasizing to the media that she was chosen to this position as "a Bahraini, first," and not because of her religion.

Nevertheless, the fact that she hails from a religious community that has become so scarce in the Arab world since the establishment of Israel in Palestine in 1948, and the consequent turbulence in the Middle East for the past 60 years, raises questions on the political motives behind the monarch's choice.

Bahrain is said to be the only Arab Gulf state with a Jewish community.

Nonoo's ancestral family had come from Iraq in the early 20th century to settle in this small island state, where the Jews had mostly immigrated from Iran and Iraq. Though their numbers grew in the first half of the 1900s, they dwindled after 1948, when most of them left for Israel, the United States and Europe.

Today there are 40 Jews, most of them working in the financial and commercial sectors, a synagogue and a cemetery, in this pro-Western country, a close U.S. ally that hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

The majority of Bahrain's half a million population, about 65 percent, are Shiites, ruled by a Sunni ruling monarchy.

While the kingdom has no official diplomatic relations with Israel, it shut down an office that boycotted Israeli products in 2006, in what seemed to be a condition for later signing the Free Trade Agreement with the United States.

Bahraini commentators privately said that Nonoo's appointment as envoy to Washington was a public relations stunt by Manama to further appease the United States and to signal its readiness to open up toward Israel, despite the widespread popular opposition toward such a move.

Similar criticism was expressed when she was appointed a legislator three years ago in the 40-member Shura council, the country's upper house of parliament, replacing her cousin, Ibrahim Daoud Nonoo, who was the first Jew to serve in the legislative council in 2000.

The new ambassador, who describes herself as a businesswoman, is also a founding member of the Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society (BHRWS), which has in recent years come under allegations by other rights groups that it promotes government views at the expense of human rights.

Nabil Rajab, vice president of the Bahrain Human Rights Center, has described the BHRWS as a "fake non-governmental organization," according to The National, an English-language newspaper in the UAE.

The paper said on Friday that Nonoo and Faisal Fulad, a fellow Shura Council member and co-founder of BHRWS, were "tossed out of a meeting of the anti-torture committee in Geneva" in 2005.

However, Arab diplomats say the appointment of a Jew and a woman was an aggressive message to the West, especially to the United States, that Bahrain does not discriminate against people based on their religion or gender.

Meanwhile, Nonoo was quoted in local Bahraini papers as saying she was delighted and looking forward to becoming the first female ambassador to Washington.

She becomes the third Bahraini woman ambassador, after Princess Haya al-Khalifa, representative at the United Nations, and Bibi al-Alawi, the kingdom's ambassador to China.