Manama - "Jerusalem" dot com - The King of Bahrain , Sheikh Khalifa bin Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, overthrew Sheikha Mai bint Mohammed Al Khalifa from her position at the presidency of the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities.

The reasons that led to the dismissal of Sheikha Mai from her post were not publicly clear, and the Royal Court contented itself with issuing a decision on the twenty-first of this month, appointing Sheikh Khalifa bin Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa as head of the authority in her place.

And it was stated in a report by the London-based newspaper, Rai Al-Youm, that Sheikha Mai was overthrown because of her refusal to shake hands with the Israeli ambassador to Bahrain, Eitan Nae.

According to the newspaper, on the sixteenth of last June, the US ambassador to Bahrain, Stephen Bondy, held a special condolence council for the death of his father, and some ambassadors and officials, including Sheikha Mai bint Mohammed, and the Israeli ambassador, invited him, and while introducing one of the attendees to the personalities to shake hands, the sheikha refused to shake hands. Naih withdrew her hand and left the American ambassador's house, and asked that no picture of her be published in the funeral.

Sheikha Mai had worked in the media and culture for more than 20 years, during which she was always a controversial figure, and her background that came from the ruling family gave her the ability to rebel against the ministers under whom she worked.

Prior to that, Sheikha Mai refused to Judaize the old neighborhoods of the capital, Manama, and this includes the Judaization of Bab Al-Bahrain and Al-Mutanabbi Street all the way to the Jewish Synagogue located in Saasa bin Sohan Street in Old Manama, and she refused to allow American Jewish investors to build a Jewish neighborhood with guiding writings and a Star of David that receives tourists from Bahrain Gate to the Jewish Synagogue. As stated in "Rai Al-Youm" newspaper.

The Sheikh Ibrahim Center, run by Sheikha Mai, hosted the Jewish historian and thinker Ilan Pappe on November 30, 2021, who suggested that the desired future solution is the abolition of the racist Zionist settler colonialism of Palestine, and the symposium was a blow to normalization efforts with Israel.