shell mock --define from array: ERROR: Bad option for '--define' ("dist). Use --define 'macro expr' - arrays

Question

I am currently writing a script which should make it more easy for me to build some RPMs using mock.
The plan is to make it possible to add values for the mock (and therefor rpmbuild) --define parameter.
The error I get if I add such a define value is
ERROR: Bad option for '--define' ("dist). Use --define 'macro expr'
When I execute the script with as simple as ./test.sh --define "dist .el7" the "debug" output is as follows:
/usr/bin/mock --init -r epel-7-x86_64 --define "dist .el7"
If I copy this and execute it in the shell directly it is actually working. Does anybody have an idea why this is the case?
My script can be cut down to the following:
#!/bin/sh
set -e
set -u
set -o pipefail
C_MOCK="/usr/bin/mock"
MOCK_DEFINES=()
_add_mock_define() {
#_check_parameters_count_strict 1 ${#}
local MOCK_DEFINE="${1}"
MOCK_DEFINES+=("${MOCK_DEFINE}")
}
_print_mock_defines_parameter() {
if [ ${#MOCK_DEFINES[#]} -eq 0 ]; then
return 0
fi
printf -- "--define \"%s\" " "${MOCK_DEFINES[#]}"
}
_mock_init() {
local MOCK_DEFINES_STRING="$(_print_mock_defines_parameter)"
local MOCK_PARAMS="--init"
MOCK_PARAMS="${MOCK_PARAMS} -r epel-7-x86_64"
[ ! "${#MOCK_DEFINES_STRING}" -eq 0 ] && MOCK_PARAMS="${MOCK_PARAMS} ${MOCK_DEFINES_STRING}"
echo "${C_MOCK} ${MOCK_PARAMS}"
${C_MOCK} ${MOCK_PARAMS}
local RC=${?}
if [ ${RC} -ne 0 ]; then
_exit_error "Error while mock initializing ..." ${RC}
fi
}
while (( ${#} )); do
case "${1}" in
-s|--define)
shift 1
_add_mock_define "${1}"
;;
esac
shift 1
done
_mock_init
exit 0

Answer 1

After asking this question a coworker I was pointed to this question on unix stackexchange: Unix Stackexchange question
The way this problem was solved can be broken down to following lines:
DEFINES=()
DEFINES+=(--define "dist .el7")
DEFINES+=(--define "foo bar")
/usr/bin/mock --init -r epel-7-x86_64 "${DEFINES[#]}"
Just in case somebody else stumbles upon this kind of issue.