A delegation of six journalists from Arab countries arrived in Israel, including for the first time journalists from Saudi Arabia and Iraq who have no diplomatic relations with Israel. The two journalists criticized Palestinian and Iraqi journalists for the visit and vowed to punish Iraqi journalists visiting Israel.
The delegation, which also includes journalists from Jordan and Egypt, will visit the Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Knesset and holy sites in occupied Jerusalem. It will also hold meetings with members of the Israeli parliament and a number of diplomats during the visit.
The website "Israel in Arabic" said that a Saudi media activist visiting Israel said in an interview with Israeli radio Galatas that "the Israeli people are like his people." He described the Saudi media activist in an online joke the Israeli people as "like his family," expressing his love for "the State of Israel And his dream of visiting Jerusalem. "
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said that the program of the Arab media delegation includes a visit to the cities of Nazareth, Haifa and Tel Aviv, pointing out that the purpose of the visit of journalists is to identify closely the reality of Israel and life in it.
Al-Jazeera correspondent in Jerusalem Elias Karam said that the names of members of the media delegation were kept secret except for the name of the Saudi media activist Mohammed Saud, a student at the Faculty of Law in Riyadh. The correspondent added that within the delegation program visit the holy shrine.
Two unions condemn
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate condemned the participation of Arab journalists in any meetings or activities during their visit to Israel. The union considered this a normalization step with the occupation authorities and a stab for the syndicate's anti-normalization positions.
The union called on the General Federation of Arab Journalists and the unions and associations of journalists in the Arab countries to abide by the decisions and principles of the Union, and demanded accountability of every journalist involved in such visits and activities.
The union called on Arab journalists to stand up and stand up to the struggle of the Palestinian people and support their cause.
The syndicate also issued a statement promising to take punitive measures against members of the union who intend to visit Israel. The union said that the visit "completely intersects with its national approach and rejection of all forms of normalization with the Zionist entity and its hostile attitudes towards the Arab countries."
In June, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the White House team responsible for the US peace plan worked to ensure that six Israeli journalists entered Bahrain to cover the Manama Economic Conference held on June 25-26.
The newspaper added that the government of Bahrain agreed to attend the Israeli journalists to the conference.
In February 2018, the Moroccan National Press Association denounced the visit of five Moroccan journalists to an Arab delegation to Israel at the invitation of the occupation authorities. Two Moroccan media delegations had already visited Israel in November 2016. This visit provoked outrage and condemnation in the press Moroccan and all Moroccans.