A report by the French newspaper "Le Monde" shed light on the great marginalization and disregard with which Arab advocates treated Israeli journalists who covered the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, after they were put in embarrassing situations and documented by their own cameras as soon as they were introduced to themselves and their identity, in When he answered every question they had with the famous phrase "Free Palestine".
Thousands of social media pioneers around the world transmitted a famous video clip of the great disregard that an Israeli journalist received from Moroccan supporters immediately after they discovered his Israeli nationality.
The newspaper recounts that one evening, a number of Moroccan fans stood smiling and wearing the flag of their country in front of a team of foreign journalists when one of the journalists who did not appear in the camera said, "We are from Israel," so the Moroccans immediately collected their things and left in front of the camera;
The journalist protests, "But we have made new friends; we have made peace!"
Referring to the diplomatic recognition agreement signed between Israel and the Kingdom of Morocco in December 2020, one of the fans answers him as he walks away, "No to Israel, and yes to the Palestinians," and the Israeli journalist exclaimed stubbornly and in disbelief, "But you signed the peace, I signed the peace." .
Arab consensus
According to Le Monde, the incident that occurred that evening to Raz Chesnik, the special envoy of the Yedioth Ahronoth daily (the largest paid newspaper in Israel) to Doha, was not an isolated case.
"My experience in Qatar ended any hope of improving our relations with the Arabs." An Israeli journalist admits the failure of his attempts to address the Arab peoples during the World Cup # Qatar after the great popular rejection of the Israeli media # Al Jazeera_Mondial 22 pic.twitter.com/8N8IuCV6O4
- Al-Jazeera Channel (@AJArabic) December 2, 2022
All Israeli hopes that the ongoing dynamics of normalization between their country and many Arab countries would facilitate their work were dashed.
Almost from the start of the contest, they have faced almost systematic Arab refusal to speak to them;
As a sign of solidarity with the Palestinians.
The French newspaper considered that the difficult return to reality "reminds us that this issue is still an essential element of Arab identity, and illustrates the gap between Arab leaders - most of whom are not elected - and their people."
Most of them turn away and run away.
In a statement to the French newspaper, the diplomatic correspondent of the Israeli Public Broadcasting Authority, Moav Vardi, said that "10% of the Arabs with whom I deal are cooperative, and the rest, when they know where I come from, move away from me; most of them flee as if I have the plague, and in some cases the rejection is accompanied by verbal attacks." ".
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Al Jazeera (@aljazeera)
He points to a scene also posted on social media, in which a Saudi fan tells him, "There is no Israel, there is only Palestine. You are not welcome here."
Raz Cechnik posted a long series of tweets showing "hate looks" from the Arab fans he tried to talk to, even trying in vain to impersonate an Ecuadorian journalist.
On the other hand, Muhammad al-Kurd (a model of a young, observant Palestinian) wrote on his Twitter account that "Israeli journalists are playing dumb. They ignore the land theft, the killing of journalists, and the millions of Palestinians who live in an open prison. They know that public opposition to Zionism is on the rise." On the rise, that is why they play the victim by conveying the horror of the feelings of football fans."