Israeli officials have voiced hope that the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords reached with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in 2020, and later Sudan and Morocco, would spur further normalization, including with Arab heavyweight Saudi Arabia.
Interview attempts with Arab fans, however, fell flat with reporters from public broadcaster Kan and top-rated Channel 12 TV telling Reuters they had been mostly snubbed. Footage circulating online showed two Saudi fans, a Qatari shopper and three Lebanese fans walking away from Israeli reporters.
A Channel 13 reporter said Palestinian fans held an impromptu protest next to him, waving their and flags and chanting “go home.”
Qatar does not officially recognize Israel, setting Palestinian statehood as a condition for that. But it has allowed direct flights from Tel Aviv for the World Cup as well as a delegation of Zionist diplomats to handle logistics.
The occupying regime has sent an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 “fans” to Qatar.
Saudi national Khaled al-Omri, who works in the oil industry and was in Qatar to support his home team, told Reuters he hoped the Tel Aviv-Doha flight route would not become permanent.
“Sure, most countries in the Arab world are heading towards normalization – but that’s because most of them don’t have rulers who listen to their people,” he said.
Like Doha, Riyadh rules out normalization for now. But since 2020 it has allowed Israeli airlines to overfly Saudi territory.
Aseel Sharayah, a 27-year-old Jordanian at the tournament, said he would have also refused to talk to Zionist journalists, though Amman signed a peace deal with Israel in 1994.
“If I did see any of them, there’d be absolutely no time of interaction,” said Sharayah, who works for the European-Jordanian Committee in Amman. “Their policies are closing the door on any opportunity for more ties between the countries.”
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