Israelis, on both sides of the aisle, can allow themselves a moment of grim satisfaction after the arrest of Egyptian poet Abdul Rahman Al-Qaradawi.
Qaradawi, 55, married and father of three daughters, has been wanted in Egypt since 2016, when authorities issued a warrant over a series of poems and social media posts attacking President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
From exile in Turkey, where he fled after the Muslim Brotherhood’s brief rise to power, Qaradawi accused Sissi of being a “Zionist,” a thief, and a traitor who pocketed Egypt’s wealth. Had he been extradited to Cairo, it is likely he would have been jailed without trial for months before being sentenced by a military court to years in a remote prison under harsh conditions.
Instead, he was caught in Lebanon last December, just before crossing into Syria. Within a week, after a tug-of-war between Cairo and Abu Dhabi, he was put on a plane to the United Arab Emirates. President Mohammed bin Zayed insisted Qaradawi face justice in Abu Dhabi. The poet had dedicated two political poems to him, calling him “a servant of the Zionists.” This marked the first time the UAE arrested a foreigner on charges of incitement and insulting the state and its rulers.
Israel, too, has a long score to settle with Qaradawi. Less than a year ago, he praised Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as “a hero of the nation” and urged “Arabs everywhere” to unite against the “Zionist entity.” On the eve of his arrest, he was seen in Damascus, after the fall of Bashar Assad, wearing a black-and-white Palestinian kaffiyeh and posing with locals while shouting slurs against Israel. Like his father, the prominent cleric Yusuf Qaradawi, who issued a fatwa calling for the killing of Jews and Israelis everywhere, Abdul Rahman wrote that “the path to liberating Palestine passes through killing Israelis.”
Smadar PerryPhoto: Yariv KatzYet in today’s anti-Israel climate, the Egyptian-Turkish poet has become a darling of human rights organizations worldwide. Volunteer lawyers and activists—many of them women—are campaigning for Abu Dhabi to release the man they call the “protector of Islam.” Qaradawi himself seemed convinced of his popularity across the Arab world. He avoided Cairo but never imagined the UAE would be the one to capture him.
In the last video he recorded at the Lebanese-Syrian border crossing, he recited rhymes that may have sealed his fate—taunting “the shameless Zionist Arab rulers of Egypt, the Emirates, and Saudi Arabia conspiring against Damascus’ new order.” His barbs even extended to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, though Riyadh showed no reaction.
The case reflects unusual regional dynamics: Lebanon agreed to extradite, Saudi Arabia chose to stay out, and the UAE accepted the international criticism that would follow. Qaradawi’s Lebanese lawyer summed it up bluntly: “Egypt is a poor country and brings Lebanon no benefit. The Emirates contributes a lot of money. And Israel? They didn’t ask, and they wouldn’t have been given him anyway.”