NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania

A host of scholars and imams in Mauritania issued a fatwa prohibiting normalization with Israel.

“The relationship with the usurping entity of the occupied Palestinian territory and Jerusalem is prohibited,” said the fatwa, signed by 200 scholars and imams.

“Normalization is a complete support to the usurping Zionists [Israel] and their [policy] of killing and destruction,” the scholars said.

Al-Mukhtar bin Amin, a spokesman for the scholars, termed normalization with Israel as “treason”.

"Normalization with Israel is considered a support to Israel to continue its aggression,” he said, describing the Israeli state as “cancer”.

Last month, a host of Mauritanian lawmakers called for criminalizing normalization with Israel.

Mauritania froze its relations with Israel in 2009 and severed ties and expelled the Israeli ambassador a year later.

Last year, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco signed agreements with Israel to establish diplomatic relations.

*Bassel Barakat contributed to this report from Ankara