as disputes between family members are arbitrated by the Ruling Family Council (). The council attends to internal family disputes particularly those related to appropriation of land, sale of real estate and other properties. Members of the ruling family are not allowed to refer these or other disputes to ordinary law courts. Relations between the political leadership and the rest of the "rank and file" members of the Al Khalifa ruling family have been formally managed by the council since 1932. However, on the eve of the 1973 parliamentary elections, then the Amir Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa issued a decree restructuring the Ruling Family Council to become a formal organ of the state, and giving the administrative head of the council the rank of minister. The Ruling Family Council is chaired by King Hamad, its deputy chairman is Mohammed bin Khalifa bin Hamad Al Khalifa, and the director general is Ibrahim bin Khalid bin Mohammed Al Khalifa. The King appoints the members of the board of the Ruling Family Council as recognised representatives of various kingship lines and factional alliances within the Al Khalifa family. Transcription Al Khalifa is commonly mistranscribed al-Khalifa. The Al (آل) written with the long (madda) alif is unconnected to the following word and means house, in the sense of family or dynasty, and is not the definite article particle al- 'Al' can also mean 'of'. Cabinet ministers As of 2010, roughly half of the serving cabinet ministers of Bahrain were members of the Al Khalifa royal family. Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Prime Minister, The Crown Prince, and Deputy Supreme Commander Shaikh Muhammad ibn Mubarak ibn Hamad Al Khalifah, Deputy Prime Minister Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Deputy Prime Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, Deputy Prime Minister Lt-General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, Minister of Interior Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, Minister of Foreign Affairs Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, Minister of Finance Shaikh Khalid bin Ali bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, Minister of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowment Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Minister of Oil Notable people Shaikha Dheya bint Ebrahim Al Khalifa, royal family member and President of the Riyada Group of Companies Controversies The King of Bahrain, King Al Khalifa was responsible for attacks on protesters during the Arab Spring. He and the Bahraini government were condemned both locally and overseas.