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.

#امسك_مطبع
حلقة اليوم بدايه التطبيع الشعبي فوق الطاوله بعد ان طبعت #سلطنة_عمان تحت الطاوله .#اسماء_الشحي مشهوره عمانيه اعتادت اثارة الجدل بأي ثمن في بلدها تم دعوتها من وزارة السياحه #الاسرائليه لزياره الكيان المحتل في #فلسطين .
الله ينتقم منها pic.twitter.com/LrXCyypD69

— تعليله فلسطينيه (@klasshhenkov) February 3, 2023

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.

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Kuwaiti law prohibits contact and visits to Israel, and any efforts to normalize ties with the Jewish state.

By Shiryn Ghermezian, The Algemeiner

Kuwait’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry has ordered a shop in the city of Salmiya to close for selling Star of David necklaces that are illegal by law, The Jewish Chronicle first reported.

The ministry said in a Twitter post on Aug. 27 that an arrest had been made due to the “sale of slogans in violation of the public order of the state.” Included in the tweet was a photo of the two accessories featuring the Jewish symbol. The ministry also said that legal action was being taken against the seller.

A spokesperson for the Embassy of Israel in London slammed the ministry’s actions, telling The Jewish Chronicle: “We are not familiar with the details of the case, but if it is true that a store was closed because of the sale of a Star of David and other Judaica items, this is a clear antisemitic act. It is unacceptable that a state would so blatantly and aggressively attack freedom of religion.”

Kuwait does not formally recognize Israel and when the Abraham Accords were signed the Gulf country declared that it would “be the last” to normalize relations with the Jewish state. In May 2021, the Kuwaiti parliament passed a bill prohibiting contact and visits to Israel, and any efforts to normalize ties with the country. Violators risk facing jail time and fines.

Kuwaiti athletes have withdrawn from competitions to avoid going head-to-head with rivals from Israel and Kuwait Airways was at the center of a lawsuit in 2018 when it refused to board an Israeli passenger due to his nationality.

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Journalist and peace activist Rafa Mismar expelled from Palestinian Journalists Syndicate for attending a joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day ceremony. 

By World Israel News Staff

A Palestinian journalist and peace activist has been expelled from the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) over charges that she was promoting normalization with Israel by participating in a controversial Memorial Day ceremony, The Jerusalem Post reported.

Rafa Mismar’s role as host of an Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day ceremony in Beit Jala, near Bethlehem on May 3 resulted in her expulsion from PJS, which is comprised mainly of members of the ruling Fatah faction headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

The annual ceremony, which takes place on Israel’s Memorial Day (Yom Hazikaron), is organized by the Parents Circle and the left-wing Combatants for Peace group, whose members include ex-Palestinian security prisoners.

This year, organizers said 200,000 people around the world watched a livestream of the ceremony, with some 1,000 Israelis in attendance in an auditorium in Tel Aviv University.

The ceremony has frequently made headlines for sparking outrage on the Israeli right.

Religious Zionist party leader Bezalel Smotrich this year slammed participants for “sitting with terrorists.”

Boma Inbar, an Israeli whose son was killed in Lebanon in 1995, blamed Israel’s “occupation” of the Palestinians for bloodshed in the region.

“It hurts me that the sanctification of stones and land, which do not ultimately belong to us, is more important than the sanctification of life,” said Inbar. “End the occupation, end the occupation, end the occupation.”

Mismar’s participation in the event drew ire from several prominent Palestinians, including journalists who called on the PJS to ban her, The Jerusalem Post reported.

The Israeli-Palestinian ceremony was a “normalization conference that equates between the killer and the victim and disregards the rights of the Palestinian people,” a statement from the group said.

Mismar’s “participation exceeds normalization to the point of accepting inferiority and identifying with the narrative of the occupation and promoting it,” it added.

Her participation, and other fraternization attempts with Israelis, demonstrate her “insistence on proceeding with the policy that is rejected by our people, institutions and unions,” PJS found.

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It was unclear how the law will be implemented as Iraq has not recognized Israel since the country’s formation in 1948

By Associated Press

Iraqi lawmakers on Thursday passed a bill criminalizing normalization of ties and any relations, including business ties, with Israel. The legislation says that violation of the law is punishable with the death sentence or life imprisonment.

The legislation is also seen as an Iraqi rejection of the Abraham accords, which normalized Israeli ties with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.

The law was approved with 275 lawmakers voting in favor of it in the 329-seat assembly. A parliament statement said the legislation is “a true reflection of the will of the people.”

Influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose party won the largest number of seats in Iraq’s parliamentary elections last year, called for Iraqis to take to the streets to celebrate this “”great achievement.” Hundreds later gathered in central Baghdad, chanting anti-Israel slogans.

It was unclear how the law will be implemented as Iraq has not recognized Israel since the country’s formation in 1948; the two nations have no diplomatic relations. The legislation also entails risks for companies working in Iraq and found to be in violation of the bill.

The United States said it was deeply disturbed by the Iraqi legislation.

“In addition to jeopardizing freedom of expression and promoting an environment of antisemitism, this legislation stands in stark contrast to progress Iraq’s neighbors have made by building bridges and normalizing relations with Israel, creating new opportunities for people throughout the region,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement.

Earlier this year, Iran fired a dozen ballistic missiles towards the northern city of Irbil in the Kurdish-run north, saying it was targeting an Israeli intelligence base.

The home of Baz Karim, the CEO of the oil company KAR GROUP, was heavily damaged in the attack. KAR has been accused in the past of quietly selling oil to Israel.

A report by the Iraqi parliament’s fact-finding committee said it found no evidence to support Iranian accusations of an Israeli spy base in Irbil.

World Israel News staff contributed to this report.

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A country that prioritizes fighting “normalization” with Israel over rescuing its own people from disaster will never be able to recover from its chronic illness of bigotry and hate.

By Khaled Abu Toameh, Gatestone Institute 

The financial and economic crisis in Lebanon is dragging the country towards mayhem at a quickening pace, according to various reports. Lebanon is running out of critical medicines and is witnessing fuel shortages. The economic collapse has stripped the national currency of most of its value and left four out of five Lebanese citizens below the poverty line.

The World Bank has described the crisis as among the worst in over a century.

The crisis, however, has not stopped the Lebanese authorities from again displaying their hostility towards Israel. Instead of devoting its energies to solving the economic crisis and end the suffering of its people — not even to distract their people from problems they are clueless how to fix — the failed Lebanese government is busy combating “normalization” with Israel.

“Normalization” with Israel is not what is plaguing Lebanon. The Lebanese who are dying for lack of medication could not care less about “normalization” with Israel. The Lebanese who queue for hours to fill their cars with gasoline could not care less about “normalization” with Israel. These people are desperate for real and immediate solutions to the deepening crisis in Lebanon.

Yet the Lebanese government has found time to punish Lebanese citizens for allegedly promoting “normalization” with Israel at a time when it cannot manage to resolve the life-and-death problems plaguing its own people.

Guilty of “engaging in normalization”

Last week, a military court in Beirut sentenced three men to prison after convicting them of “doing business and engaging in normalization” with Israel.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency said that the court, headed by Brigadier General Mounir Shehadeh, issued three rulings against “dealers with the Israeli enemy.”

Dr. Jamal Ahmed Rifi, a Lebanese physician residing in Australia, was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison for the crime of “normalization with Israel,” the agency said.

The second man, Amin Mohammed Baydoun, who holds US citizenship, was sentenced to five years in prison for the crime of “dealing with the Israeli enemy.” Baydoun was arrested last June at Beirut Airport.

The third ruling was issued against Marc Charbel Tanios, who received two years in prison after being convicted of “communicating with the Israeli enemy and exchanging electronic messages with it,” according to the agency.

The first defendant’s brother, Gen. Ashraf Rifi, is a former Lebanese Minister of Justice and Director General of Internal Security.

Commenting on the sentencing of his brother, Dr. Jamal Rifi, he accused the court of being “politicised.”

“The intent of the ruling is to tarnish our image as a family,” Gen. Rifi wrote.

“My brother is an Australian-Lebanese who has been living in Australia for more than 50 years. He is a member of an Australian medical institution working as the Doctors Without Borders organization. He contributed, with the support of the Palestinian Authority, to helping the Palestinian medical sector and proudly fulfilled his duty towards the people of Palestine.”

What Gen. Rifi is explaining is that his brother was convicted by the Lebanese court for helping Palestinians, not Israelis. He is also saying that his brother carried out his duty as a physician at the request of, and with the support of, the Palestinian Authority.

Understanding an absurd verdict

There is only one explanation for the court’s absurd verdict, which found the physician guilty of the “crime of normalization” with Israel: some of the Palestinians he treated apparently hold Israeli citizenship or residency. In Israel, there are nearly two million Arabs, or about 20% of the population, who are Israeli citizens. Another 300,000 Arabs who live in Jerusalem carry Israeli-issued ID cards in their capacity as residents of Israel. A resident does not hold citizenship, but is entitled to all the rights of an Israeli citizen with the exception of voting in general elections.

The Lebanese authorities, in other words, obviously consider all these Arabs as traitors and as an enemy simply because they hold Israeli citizenship or residency.

If an Arab doctor who provided medical services to Arabs is sentenced to 10 years in prison, one can only imagine what would have happened to the doctor had he been found guilty of providing services to Israeli Jews. He would have most likely been sentenced to death by the Lebanese military court.

In a first comment on his sentence, Dr. Jamal Rifi was quoted as saying:

“Unfortunately, they sentenced me to 10 years in prison, but they sentenced the Lebanese people to life in poverty and humiliation. The military court in Lebanon did not give me any opportunity to defend myself. The court did not inform my lawyer in Beirut even of the trial date. It did not inform me personally of anything. The least that should have been done was to inform me of the date of the trial so I could defend myself.”

Rifi said that all he did was to engage in “humanitarian action” for the Palestinian people by sending them 30 ventilators for those infected with COVID-19. “We help the Palestinians humanely, while they (the Lebanese authorities) trade with their lives and issues,” he said. “Whoever stands behind this trial is trading with the cause of the Palestinian people.”

A morally bankrupt judiciary

The head of the Australian-Lebanese Christian Congregation, Wali Wahba, said that the court rulings reflected the “scene of bankruptcy in Lebanon.”

The Lebanese judiciary, Wahba added, “has become a vehicle for political targets. Anyone who knows Dr. Rifi and his career is undoubtedly aware of the tragic situation that Lebanon is suffering from in the time of lost logic. Dr. Rifi will remain a humanitarian hero in the People’s Court.”

The leader of the Palestinian Fatah faction in Australia, Abdel Qader Qaranouh, said:

“It is certainly an unjust and illogical ruling. What Dr. Rifi has done in recent years for the Palestinian people is priceless, and we consider it part of our humanitarian struggle.”

The Palestinian-Australian Cultural Center denounced the verdict against Dr. Rifi. It pointed out that the verdict was issued without giving him his constitutionally guaranteed right to legal defense before the court.

“Dr. Rifi is one of the most important leaders of the Arab and Islamic community in Australia because of the role he plays around the clock in the medical and community service,” the center added.

“Dr Rifi has been providing free medical service to Palestinian students and refugees who are not covered by the government health insurance, in addition to providing medicines available for free in his health center. Dr. Rifi also works to provide medical service and social support to detainees in immigration detention centers on a regular basis. He also led the efforts and initiatives to secure government aid to a number of medical centers in the Palestinian camps in Lebanon.”

The center said that Dr. Rifi had volunteered to work with a project to provide medical supplies to Arab hospitals in Jerusalem and to provide training for Palestinian medical staff in hospitals in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“Dr. Rifi played a key role in securing dozens of respiratory intensive care devices for hospitals in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in coordination with the Ministries of Health and Foreign Affairs in the Palestinian Authority, during the COVID-19 pandemic last year… It is shameful that the accusation of treason and normalization is attached to those who did everything they could over decades to serve the Palestinian people. Dr. Rifi is one of the pioneers of humanitarian and social volunteer work, and he has provided the Palestinian cause and our Palestinian people for decades with great services that are impossible to enumerate and for which it would be difficult to provide sufficient thanks. Therefore, we call upon those who wrote this unjust ruling to correct this sin.”

Blind hatred for Israel

The case of Dr. Rifi is yet another example of the blind hatred in Lebanon and other Arab countries towards Israel. These countries are so blinded by their hate for Israel (and Jews) that they are even prepared to punish a physician who helped Palestinians living in Jerusalem. It can be fairly said of these Arabs that they are willing to fight Israel to the last Palestinian.

There is a further ironic twist to this fiasco. While most Arab countries are turning a blind eye to the deepening crisis in Lebanon, there is one country that appears ready to help the Lebanese people: Israel.

One day after the court verdicts were issued against Dr. Rifi and the other two Lebanese, Moshe Arbel, a member of the Israeli parliament (Knesset) called on Minister of Health Nitzan Horowitz to provide the Lebanese health system with emergency humanitarian assistance in light of the public health crisis as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the political and economic crisis in Lebanon.

“The State of Israel and Israeli society cannot remain silent and stand idly by when a humanitarian catastrophe is occurring just a few minutes from the northern border,” Arbel wrote to the minister. “As Jews, we are taught that kindness of all people who are created in the image of God are beloved, and that all people are entitled to basic natural rights that must not be taken away.”

If a Lebanese parliament member had made a similar call to provide humanitarian aid to Israel, he or she would undoubtedly have been sentenced to life in prison in the best case and death in the worst. It is no wonder that Lebanon — which is dominated by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist militia — has become a failed state and is on the brink of collapse. A country that prioritizes fighting “normalization” with Israel over rescuing its own people from disaster will never be able to recover from its chronic illness of bigotry and hate.

Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.

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Most of the negative push stems from open Israeli enemies Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas, as well as the Palestinian Authority.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Arab social media has been flooded with messages against the UAE and Bahraini plans to normalize ties with Israel, with 90% disapproving of the move, according to an Israeli Strategic Affairs Ministry report on Monday.

The ministry examined uploads to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube between August 12, after the UAE made its historic announcement, and September 8, right before the Abraham Accords were signed at the White House between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain.

The vast majority of the negative posts were by supporters of Israel’s open enemies – Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas – and the Palestinian Authority (PA). The PA was the first to say that the UAE had betrayed the Palestinian cause by reaching an agreement with Israel, and this was the main reason, used by 45% of the users, to oppose the new ties.

“Normalization is treason” was a leading hashtag in the social media accounts. Another popular hashtag was “Bahrainis against normalization.” Together, the two hashtags reached more than 100 million users over the month, said the report.

Other groups that are pushing the anti-normalization line are “a series of civil society organizations that promote the delegitimization of Israel,” said the report, including those in favor of BDS (Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions). This was reflected in the 27% who objected to making deals with “Zionists” in general.

Others charged the UAE with hypocrisy, capitulating to American interests, or doing it for economic profit.

The 10% who had something positive to say focused mainly on the security benefits (61%) or economic ones (33%). Iraqi activists were among the main supporters, and the report said many were in favor of establishing diplomatic relations with Israel.

The report also made recommendations for combating the orchestrated negativity, considering the immense influence that social media has today. It suggested an inter-ministerial, coordinated campaign focusing on the Gulf countries and others that have expressed an interest in possibly following the UAE lead, which would present the technological, security, medical and other advantages of making peace with Israel.

“Given the crucial importance of the normalization processes for the future of the Middle East, and in light of the hate speech attack against our recent Gulf partnerships, we will work to promote a long-term positive mindset in Arabic, which will present the benefits of peace while challenging the narrative against it,” said Minister of Strategic Affairs Orit Farkash-Hacohen.

Farkash-Hacohen is about to exchange her post for the Tourism Ministry, which became vacant when fellow Blue and White minister Asaf Zamir resigned 10 days ago. Blue and White MK Michael Biton has been tapped to be the new head of Strategic Affairs.

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To its opponents, the “Peace Between Religions” conference was an unacceptable step towards normalization between the two countries.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The Jordanian Ministry of the Interior canceled a three-day interfaith conference scheduled to start Thursday because the Israelis were going to send a delegation, Al-Jazeera reported on Thursday.

There was no official reason given for the cancellation, but the conference’s executive director told the news site that an “ambassadors committee against normalization” had contacted the conference authorities in protest. Once the committee “clarified” to the ministry that the expected Israeli presence helps normalize the relationship between the two countries, the event was annulled, he said.

A Jordanian member of parliament, Dima Tahboub of the Reform Bloc, also worked to block the “Peace Between Religions” forum. Calling it “a cultural breakthrough rejected by the Jordanian people,” Tahboub praised the government for responding to the public’s will by “rejecting all forms of normalization” with the Jewish state.

As reported in Ma’ariv, the Jordanian organization Tifal – For Opposition and Against Normalization, objected to the conference on other grounds as well.

In its statement, the group said that it should not take place “in the shadow of the continuous threat to Jordan by the enemy, the clear damage to its national sovereignty, the damage to the holy places under Jordanian patronage [i.e., the Temple Mount] and the continued crimes of the Zionist enemy against our Palestinian brothers, and his never-ending war on Gaza. This gathering takes place when the Gaza martyrs’ blood has even not dried yet.”

The conference’s timing was particularly egregious in the eyes of its opponents because of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent declarations regarding annexation of the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea region.

Netanyahu has in fact just approved fast-tracking legislation for imposing Israeli sovereignty on this area that borders the Hashemite kingdom.

In the Al-Jazeera article, the head of the Executive Committee for Protecting the Homeland and Countering Normalization, Ahmed Armouti, said that “Jordan is keen to put some red lines in front of Israeli ambitions and objectives, which affect Jordanian sovereignty,” including unnamed diplomatic steps.

The furthest-reaching political move that is on the table would affect far more than conference participants needing to cancel their plane tickets.

The news site reports that a bill has been proposed in the Jordanian parliament to repeal the country’s 1994 peace treaty with Israel and “return to the declaration of jihad” since “Palestine is an Arab Islamic land and part of our faith.”

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