Arabs and Jews celebrate Hanukkah together in Bahrain

World News Rudolph Rodriquez
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Old school Jews danced together with Arabs this weekend, after the king of the Muslim country has allowed celebrations for the Jewish holiday.

Photographs and videos of people from the two religions celebrating, which also had a Jewish delegation offering a silver menorah to Arab officials, was posted this Monday on YouTube to the praise of many users.

This was not received so well by Hamas, the Palestinian paramilitary group that fights Israel in the Gaza Strip, who called this a “humiliating and disgraceful display” in a recent statement.

In a video from the celebration, a Jewish man can be see handing the menorah to the Arab delegation and declaring: “The positive energy that there were tonight needs to be spread around. The symbol is that hopefully through this night we can bring infinite light to the world.”

King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa of Bahrain has approved this ceremony, which was last performed in this country in 1948, already in 2015.

“Here in Bahrain members of all the religions live with no fear, and we will continue to allow Jews to live peacefully and quietly, maintaining their lifestyle, their customs and the commandments of their religion without any fear,” said the king then.

Even though there are about 50 Jews that live in Bahrain, the king has made efforts to embrace them, having Jew representatives in his Shura Council and naming Houda Ezra Ebrahim Nonoo, a Jewish woman as Bahrain’s ambassador to the United States in 2008.