Omani social media star says visiting Israel was a ‘dream come true,’ while Muslim social media users condemn her for touring the Jewish state.
By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News Staff
An Omani video blogger’s recent trip to Israel sparked fury throughout the Muslim world after she happily posted videos of herself landing at Ben Gurion Airport to her social media accounts.
Asmaa Al-Shehhi, based in the United Arab Emirates but a citizen of the neighboring Gulf Kingdom Oman, recorded herself smiling and laughing as she walked into the arrivals hall at the central Israel airport.
The influencer, who has 52,000 followers on Instagram, says that the Israeli customs staff was shocked to see an Omani passport and that they told her this was the first time they had encountered a visitor from that country.
Later, she posted a clip of herself chatting in Arabic while in a taxi, presumably with an Arab-Israel driver, as she traveled to Haifa. She noted a road sign on the way which read “Orsalem” in Arabic, referring to the capital city of Jerusalem.
In the northern Israeli city, she toured the Bahai Gardens, chatted with locals, photographed graffiti murals, and visited a used book store.
Several days later, Al-Shehhi posted pictures and videos from the Old City of Jerusalem, including the famous golden Dome of the Rock and Damascus Gate.
Visiting Jerusalem “is a dream come true,” she told her followers.
While the content of Al-Shehhi’s social media posts was inoffensive, some social media users in the Muslim world were outraged that she visited Israel.
“May Allah take revenge on her,” a user with the name “Palestinian explanation” wrote on Twitter as a caption to a video of her walking in Haifa.
“We [Omanis] will visit Jerusalem as liberators, not [tourists],” wrote Twitter user Issa Al-Balushi.
“Rest assured, she [Al-Shehhi] is not [a true] Omani… A true Omani’s main concern would be the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem.”
Notably, Oman appeared to be on the verge of normalizing relations with Israel in recent years. In 2018, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a clandestine visit to the country to discuss the matter.
But in 2020, Oman declined to join the Abraham Accords, citing a two-state solution as a requirement for the nation to officially recognize Israel.