An Israeli journalist violated a blanket ban on non-Muslims access to Islam’s holiest site in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, sparking an online backlash and potentially straining ties between Tel Aviv and Gulf countries.
Israel’s Thirteenth Channel on Monday aired a 10-minute report in which journalist Gil Tamary visited the Grand Mosque that houses the cube-shaped Kaaba, Islam’s holiest shrine, and climbed the Mount of Mercy.
Tamary, who was accompanied by a local consultant whose face was blurred to avoid identification, lowered her voice as she spoke to the camera in Hebrew and switched to English to avoid revealing herself as Israeli.
The report was presented as a first and the journalist was the first Israeli Jewish journalist to document the annual Muslim Hajj pilgrimage.
The photographs gained an online reaction, with the Twitter hashtag “A Jew in the Grand Mosque of Mecca” after the report was issued.
Among the critics, Mohammed Saud, a pro-Israel Saudi activist. “My dear friends in Israel, one of your hounds entered the city of Mecca, a saint of Islam, and filmed there brazenly,” he said.
“What a shame, Channel 13, for hurting Islam in this way. You are rude. “
Israel’s Regional Cooperation Minister Esawi Freij, who is Muslim, denounced Tamary’s report as “stupid and damaging” to Israeli-Gulf relations.
“It is irresponsible and harmful to publish this report only for the sake of the audiences,” he added.
Tamary, who in Jeddah to cover U. S. President Joe Biden’s layover on Friday, apologized after the online backlash and said it was not intended to offend Muslims.
“If you are offended by this video, I deeply apologize,” he wrote in English on Twitter.
– גיל תמרי (@tamarygil) July 19, 2022
“The goal of this total business is to highlight the importance of Mecca and the good looks of religion and, in doing so, foster more devout tolerance and inclusion,” he added.
The journalist claimed that “curiosity is in the middle and in the middle of journalism” and that his reporting was guided by the preference to allow other people “to see, for the first time, a position that is so vital to our Muslim brothers and sisters, and to human history. “
The Mount of Mercy dominates the plain of Arafat, respected as the position where the Prophet Muhammad delivered his last sermon 14 centuries ago.
Mecca is the holiest place of worship for Muslims in the world, followed by the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina and the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
Only Muslims can enter Mecca, while non-Muslims cannot enter. Failure to comply with this rule could result in a fine or expulsion.
The Saudi media, strictly controlled by the government, did not cover the story. It was unclear whether the government had approved the journalist’s trip to Mecca.
Israel and Saudi Arabia have no diplomatic relations and the kingdom recognizes Israel as a state.
But the scenes, the two sides have been working together on security issues for some time, with a non-unusual fear about the growing influence in the region of their non-unusual enemy, Iran.
Saudi Arabia said last week it would open its airspace to all airlines, paving the way for more overflights to and from Israel, an additional sign that the two countries are warming.
Biden’s management needs Saudi Arabia to be its own addition to normalization agreements known as the “Abraham Accords,” a procedure under former President Donald Trump that saw Israel normalize with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.