Dubai deputy police chief Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan Tamim. Photo: Screenshot.
The former chief of the Dubai police, who was outspoken about the alleged Israeli assassination of a top Hamas terrorist in his city in 2010 and threatened to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, criticized Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday for opposing the United Arab Emirates’ peace deal with the Jewish state.
Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, who is now Deputy Chief of Police and General Security, tweeted, “Remove from your heads the idea that you do not establish relations with Israel except by order of Mahmoud Abbas.”
فكرة انكم ما تعملون علاقات مع اسرائيل إلا بامر محمود عباس شيلوها من من رؤوسكم…
— ضاحي خلفان تميم (@Dhahi_Khalfan) September 7, 2020
Since the peace deal was announced last month, Abbas has condemned it in increasingly harsh terms as a betrayal of the Palestinian cause and the Arab people in general.
Tamim’s statement is all the more remarkable because of his leading role in the investigation of the execution of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai in January 2010.
Mabhouh, one of the founders of the Hamas terrorist force the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was killed in a Dubai hotel room by what was reported to be a hit team of 26 suspects using stolen or forged passports, including some belonging to Israeli dual citizens.
Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency was widely assumed to be behind the assassination, and Tamim was extremely outspoken about his suspicions in this regard.
In March 2010, an Australia news website reported that Tamim said, “I am now completely sure that it was Mossad” and claimed he had instructed Dubai authorities to arrest Netanyahu and Mossad chief Meir Dagan.
“I have presented the prosecutor with a request for the arrest of Netanyahu and the head of Mossad,” he said.
It was rumored that he further said Jews would henceforth be banned from traveling to Dubai, but Tamim denied making such a statement.
