Arab soccer fan tells Israeli News 12 that 'there is no Israel, only Palestine'

Arab Hospitality? Jews & Israelis Harassed As Qatar Lives Up To Its Bad Reputation

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The Judean Staff
International

While the World Cup in Qatar continues to provide fans worldwide with great soccer, Israelis who have come based on the FIFA promise that they would be welcome, safe and not subjected to harassment continue to suffer from antisemitism being echoed by Arab fans and local Qatar authorities. Qatar is the second largest state sponsor of terror next to Iran and is the country that welcomes Hamas leaders who are hiding from Israeli reprisals.

In another violation of FIFA rules, yesterday, Qatari officials told Israeli broadcasters to take down signs in Hebrew so that they would not be recognized by locals seeking to confront them. Instead of providing security to ensure that Israeli media would not be attacked, the Qatari government told them to hide instead.

Much of the harassment and targeted assaults against Jews watching the World Cup is a result of comments from a popular radical Islamic preacher. The Grand Mufti of the Sultanate of Oman, Ahmed bin Hamad Al-Khalili, expressed his support for the expressions of hatred directed against the "Zionists." 

โ€œWhether they (the harassers) are from Qatar or the rest of the Arab and Muslim world, I applaud them. This is because they did not accept the appeasement forbidden by Sharia (to let Israelis into Qatar), and declared to the occupying Zionists that they had no right to exist. This indicates that the situation of the Arab people is still decent."

As mentioned, many Israeli broadcasters have said they experienced discrimination and tasteless hatred while reporting from Qatar. Thus, The "Kan 11" Channelโ€™s commentator, Eli Ohana, was confronted by a police officer who refused to accept that Ohana was, in fact, Jewish and Israeli. Only after telling the officer that he was Portuguese, the officer admitted that if Ohana was really Israeli, he would not have spoken to him. 

In another case, another "Kan 11"  correspondent to the World Cup, Dor Hoffman, told his peers in Israel about the hatred towards Jews in the World Cup. According to him, "It was a โ€œbummerโ€ day that put things in proportion. 

โ€œIt started in the morning when we got in a taxi, and the driver found out that we were Israeli, he really didn't like that so he dropped us off in the middle of nowhere, and said he wasn't ready to take money from us because we were killing his brothers and all these random things. So we ended up changing taxis."

"Then we arrived at a local beach restaurant, just to take a picture of the people on the beach. The owner asked to know where we were from, once he found out we were from Israel,  he brought security guards to kick us out. They forcibly took my phone and asked me to delete every picture I took there. I felt threatened."

Interestingly enough, the news of not being welcomed at the international tournament has shocked Israelis. Many were hopeful that the Qatari people and other Arabs attending the World Cup would be a bit more cordial, due to recent positive diplomatic developments between Arab nations and Israel.

The problem is Qatar is not the United Arab Emirates, it is not Morocco, it is not even the Saudi Arabia of Muhammad Bin Salamon who, while not directly establishing ties with Israel, has worked behind the scenes to make that happen. In fact, Qatari Arabs are more hardline and radicalized. If not for the oil revenue they have they would be poor, uneducated Bedouins as those are their roots.

Qatar's funding of Taliban, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad, their creation of the propaganda outlet Al Jazeera and their funding of other publications that exist solely to create misleading anti-Israel digital content like Mondoweiss and +972 magazine should have been a warning sign to Israelis. Qatar is a state where terrorists come to vacation in relative safety. It is a nation where xenophobia is rampant.

The country is not good for its word. Upon signing the deal with FIFA in 2012, Qatar promised that alcohol would be allowed, two days before the start of the games they rescinded that promise leaving tens of thousands of soccer (football) fans dry and not high. The country also announced restrictive public social rules one day before the games and has threatened other media outlets. Qatar is also a rampant violator of human rights. During the building phase of the stadiums for the World Cup games, hundreds of foreign laborers died, at one stretch it was one per day. Workers were abused and pay was withheld. 

To highlight the level of antisemitism in Qatar coming from the top, one day into the games Qatar determined that cooking Kosher food would not be allowed. That same day they also declared that 'Jewish Prayer' would not be allowed but made it seem as if it was for security reasons, as Qatar could not guarantee the safety of Jews who wanted to pray.

Despite the harassment and discomfort, the Israeli delegation in Qatar perseveres and is doing its best to try to show the world what Israel is about. Few have left during the tournament with one spectator saying "I'm here for the games and the experience and I am not leaving because if I do, they (Qatar) win."

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