Mecca police said they arrested a Saudi who helped an Israeli Jewish journalist sneak into Islam’s holiest city, defying the rule that Muslims can enter the area.
While Muslims of all nationalities and backgrounds can enter Mecca, non-Muslims are not allowed because a very specific code of conduct and customs is required for all other people within its borders, adding some bureaucracy of modesty, ritual purification, and prayers.
Public reaction to TELEVISION journalist Gil Tamary’s scale in was swift on social media, with Muslims and Saudis expressing anger at his deception and obviously at the sanctity of the site.
This comes as relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel have quietly evolved amid shared considerations about Iran, the sworn enemy. This incident is unlikely to cool the relationship. Publicly, the kingdom insists that its policy is that full ties can only occur when Palestinian statehood and rights are guaranteed.
The protest appears to have prompted Saudi police to announce Friday night the arrest of the Saudi who they say facilitated the journalist’s access to Mecca, particularly in violation of rules prohibiting access by non-Muslims. The Saudi national, whose identity has been revealed. , has been processed and remains under arrest.
The veteran journalist for Israel’s Channel 13 filmed himself in Mecca for a roughly 10-minute segment broadcast Monday in which he visited a key site in the hajj pilgrimage direction where the Prophet Muhammad delivered his last sermon some 1,400 years ago.
He said he knowingly snuck into Mecca with a driving force, saying he spoke quietly in Hebrew so no one could hear him. He claimed to be the first Israeli Jew to enter the city. He did not identify himself as Israeli or Jewish to the motive force record.
In the clip that aired, Tamary and her Saudi driving force pass a path that says non-Muslims cannot pass, and then pass under a massive reproduction of the Qur’an that is the main gateway to the city. “The dream has come true,” he says as they cross Mecca and head towards Mount Arafat.
After climbing the mountain, he says the devoted police are starting to ask questions and need to make sure he is a Muslim. They must go.
Mecca is home to Islam’s holiest shrine, the cube-shaped Kaaba, the metaphorical house of God in the city’s Great Mosque. The shrine marks the point at which practicing Muslims around the world pray five times a day. It is also the final destination of the Muslim hajj and the small pilgrimage of Umrah.
The journalist and Channel Thirteen responded on Twitter after the report was broadcast. The news channel, in Hebrew and Arabic, said Tamary’s report was motivated by “journalistic curiosity” and a preference for testifying and seeing things firsthand. The popular Israeli channel apologized for any anger. excited by his visit, which occurred during President Joe Biden’s vacation in the nearby city of Jeddah. The Times of Israel quoted an anonymous source familiar with the matter as saying Israeli government officials were pleased with the statements published through the channel and its reporter.
Mecca police said they also referred the journalist’s movements to prosecutors, the Israeli citizen is no longer in the kingdom.
The Saudi did not identify the journalist, only saying he was not Muslim and had U. S. citizenship, implying that he entered the country with his U. S. passport since the kingdom has no formal ties to Israel.
Police have called for compliance with the country’s legislation, especially when it comes to Mecca and Islam’s holiest sites in the kingdom.
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Associated Press editors Josef Federman and Ariel Schalit in Jerusalem and Fares Akram in Gaza City contributed to this report.
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