Somali diplomat fired for suggesting country needs formal ties with Israel

Somalia, which has never had formal ties with Israel, fired a senior diplomat who has publicly called for establishing relations with Jerusalem.

Abdullahi Dool, who was fired on Sunday, said he maintains his position despite losing his post.

“I am definitely in favor of ties with Israel. We shall see what the future holds for Somali-Israel ties,” he wrote in an email to the Times of Israel. “In our country there are many officials who are pro establishing ties with Israel and there are those against… It may take few more years for Somalia to establish ties.”

Dool wrote on Twitter on Friday that diplomatic ties between Mogadishu and Jerusalem are “long overdue. Establishing diplomatic relations does not harm anyone but promote peace and cooperation.”

“The Palestinians are their worst enemies,” he wrote in another tweet. “They never miss an opportunity to miss a chance. They are idiots and losers in Gaza. They should be condemned each time they attack civilians. It is in our interest to welcome Israel.”

BREAKING Somali Government fires Mr Abdullahi Dool Director of the office of the Foreign Minister over tweets calling for diplomatic ties with Israel #Somaliapic.twitter.com/e7em9j2pEV — Radio Dalsan (@DalsanFM) 31 במרץ 2019

We have long said that the greatest enemy to the Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza is there leaders. While the left champions them, they fail to realize how little freedoms they have. Freedom of the press is severely limited. And speaking your mind in Gaza could get you killed. The truth is, the Arabs with the most freedoms in the Middle East are the Israeli Arabs who live in freedom in all over Israel.

It seems like Somalia wanted to shore up its anti-Israel image after the country’s abstention on a United Nations resolution about Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights, believed to have been the first time a member of the Arab League missed an opportunity to condemn the Jewish state.

The abstention on the resolution, “Human rights in the occupied Syrian Golan,” was probably an anomaly as the Muslim-majority nation voted in favor of three other anti-Israel resolutions that day.

Just to be sure, after U.S. President Donald Trump officially recognized the Golan as Israeli territory last week, Somalia later issued a statement reiterating its “firm position that the Golan Heights are Syrian territory illegally occupied by Israel.”

And we would remind them that Syria is not really a nation anymore after eight years of civil war, 10 million refugees and nearly 500,000 deaths, some by illegal chemical weapons. We have yet to see what will emerge. But I don’t seriously think that any of the Arabs who live in the Israeli Golan in peace, safety and prosperity, are eager to come back under Syrian authority.