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 KEINON
Updated: NOVEMBER 23, 2015 21:52
Israeli Beduin diplomat Ismail Khaldi speaks at Rutgers (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Israeli 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.