Foreign Ministry summons Israeli Beduin diplomat over Facebook posts
Ministry head Dore Gold to call in Ismail Khaldi for "piercing" clarification of "inappropriate remarks."
By HERB KEINONUpdated: NOVEMBER 23, 2015 21:52Israeli Beduin diplomat Ismail Khaldi speaks at Rutgers(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Foreign Ministry director-general Dore Gold will summon Ismail Khaldi, Israel's first Beduin diplomat currently serving in London, to clarify a number of problematic posting on his Facebook page, the ministry announced on Sunday.Khaldi was summoned following a story in NRG revealing that Khaldi wrote on his Facebook page over the weekend that a colleague in the ministry and others in Israel hate Arabs and Muslims “more than anti-Semites hate Jews.”Khaldi, charged in London with spearheading efforts gained by BDS, also mocked joy in Israel at the release of Jonathan Pollard. Following Pollard's release on Friday, Khaldi copied a positive post by Interior Minister Silvan Shalom and wrote: “This is what is really important? A Jewish spy is more important than a Beduin village that does not have an access road? Or are they second class?”Late last week, after the Knesset approved the budget, he posted a picture of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and wrote, “Now lets see what will get more preference: a Jewish spy in America, settlements in the West bank, or a Bedouin village without an access road?”In response, Gold said that as a result of the “inappropriate remarks,“ Khaldi will be called in for a “piercing” clarification.Khaldi, from a Bedouin village near Haifa, joined the ministry in 2004 and has served previously in San Francisco. He also served as an advisor to former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman.