The United Arab Emirates’ leadership is unhappy with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s choice of an envoy to Abu Dhabi, sources in Israel familiar with the matter said following former Ambassador Amir Hayek’s departure last week.

Netanyahu planned to use the Abu Dhabi post for one of his few political appointees to diplomatic positions, submitting Prime Minister’s Office Director-General Yossi Shelley’s name to the Civil Service Administration in July. 

Shelley was a businessman, a Likud candidate for mayor of Beersheva and the Likud director-general before Netanyahu appointed him as ambassador to Brazil in 2016. He developed a close relationship with former Brazilian President Jair Balsonaro.

Shelley has a history of gaffes. During his time as ambassador, he had a falling out with the Brazilian Jewish community, arguing that its criticism of Balsonaro damaged Israel-Brazil relations. After his return to Israel, a Brazilian woman accused Shelley of sexual harassment. 

More recently, Shelley engaged in political power struggles in the weeks after the Oct. 7 attacks, reportedly attempting to stop the flow of information to the Government Coordinator for Hostages and Missing People Brig.-Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch and blocking the appointment of an emergency czar meant to streamline the government’s non-military response. Shelley is currently acting director of the Tekuma Authority, tasked with rebuilding Israeli communities in the Gaza border region.

Shelley has been accused of insensitivity for remarks made about the Oct. 7 attacks and hostage families. For example, on Oct. 9, 2023, Shelley said that the Nova Party and its participants “made a not insubstantial contribution to the chaos,” and was criticized for blaming victims of terror for the failure of the authorities to respond to the attack fast enough.

Shelley’s appointment is only in the early stages of the process within Israel. It would have to be authorized by the Civil Service Administration and then brought to the cabinet for final approval before his name would be submitted to the UAE.

Yet multiple sources involved in the UAE-Israel relationship, including before the countries normalized ties in 2020, told Jewish Insider there has been dissatisfaction in Abu Dhabi with the choice of Shelley since it became public.

“They feel like they’re being treated like the diplomatic dustbin,” one source said. “They don’t want Bibi’s rejects who he doesn’t want in the Prime Minister’s Office anymore. The UAE sees what’s going on.”

That source said that Emirati officials initially did not view Hayek as an appropriate choice, either, because he was chosen due to his political loyalties to then-Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.

Another source suggested that a former high-ranking security official would be a better choice because of UAE-Israel cooperation on defense. At least one such official confirmed to JI that he was offered the job but turned it down.

Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, the Israeli Foreign Ministry envoy for innovation and founder of the UAE-Israel Business Council, told JI that “this posting is too strategic and important to be left empty or to appoint somebody without the relevant experience and sensitivity.” 

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and Foreign Ministry declined to comment.

Earlier this year, Italy rejected a different Netanyahu political appointee, Benny Kashriel, the former mayor of Maaleh Adumim and chairman of the Yesha Council representing West Bank settlements, which Italy officially opposes. Shelley became ambassador to Brazil after Brasilia rejected another former Yesha Council chairman, Dani Dayan, who then became consul-general to New York and is now the chairman of Yad Vashem.