Israel 'happy' with apology of journalist whose Mecca visit outraged Muslims

The Israeli government has expressed "satisfaction" with apologies issued by Israeli Channel 13 after one of its reporters entered the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia to visit religious sites that are traditionally reserved only for Muslims.

Gil Tamari, the world news editor at Channel 13, took a video of himself crossing into the holy city of Mecca and pointing to the Grand Mosque, known as Masjid Al-Haram, as seen in footage shared by his network.

The footage sparked fury among social media users as non-Muslims are traditionally banned from entering Mecca and Medina, in accordance with verses from the Quran.

Both Tamari and Channel 13 issued apologies for offending Muslims, but stood by the decision to enter the sites.

Israeli officials said that they are satisfied with the statements issued by Tamari and Channel 13, a source close to the Israeli government told The Times of Israel.

The source, however, refused to say if government officials were involved in writing the apology statements.

Viral in the Middle East: Israeli Journo Gil Tamari, covering Joe Biden's visit in Saudi Arabia, secretly enters into Makkah City and films the entire journey pic.twitter.com/Mz8qtlfg1u

— خالد (@khalid_pk) July 20, 2022

Last week, several Israel journalists travelled to Saudi Arabia to cover US President Joe Biden’s Middle East tour.

Ahead of the president’s flight to the kingdom, Saudi Arabia announced it was opening its airspace to Israeli planes, a move that was widely perceived as a step towards normalisation.

Palestinians and their allies have condemned the normalisation agreements - already brokered between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco - given Israel's continued persecution of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and besieged Gaza Strip.

The New Arab has contacted the Saudi foreign ministry for a comment.