The infiltration of an Israeli journalist in Mecca provokes an outcry

by time news

Journalist Gil Tamary, of the Israeli Channel 13, hit the headlines when he illegally entered the Muslim pilgrimage (hajj) in the holy city of Mecca, which is forbidden to non-Muslims, in search of an exclusive article for its media, causing an outcry in Saudi Arabia and an Israeli apology, reports the Israeli daily Ha’Aretz.

He is the first Israeli Jewish journalist to document the annual Muslim pilgrimage. But this unprecedented visit was widely criticized on Saudi and Israeli social networks.

Access to Islam’s holiest site is prohibited to members of other religions and is considered illegal under Saudi law. Tamary, who was in the country at the special invitation of the Saudi government on the occasion of US President Joe Biden’s diplomatic visit to the region, had decided to enter Mecca without prior authorization.

The day after the broadcast, on the evening of July 18, of the images of the Channel 13 correspondent wandering around the site of the pilgrimage, including in front of the great mosque of Mecca, social networks ignited, pushing the journalist and the television channel to apologize, while defending the process as “a significant journalistic achievement”.

Tamary’s infiltration comes as Israel and Saudi Arabia are engaged in a delicate effort to improve relations, which are seen as crucial to jointly managing the threat from Iran. Some fear Tamary’s trip could disrupt those connections, laments Ha’Aretz.

Israel has concluded normalization agreements with four Arab countries in less than three years, including the United Arab Emirates, a major ally of Saudi Arabia in the Gulf.

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