Israeli media are talking about negotiations currently taking place to allow Israeli fans to enter Saudi Arabia with an Israeli passport, during the 2023 Club World Cup, which Riyadh won the right to host.
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The occupation seeks to normalize the participation of its settlers in Arab sporting events
Israeli media reported that negotiations are underway to allow Israeli fans to enter Saudi Arabia with an Israeli passport, during the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup, which Riyadh won the right to host.
The Arab affairs correspondent for the Israeli “Kan” channel, Roei Kayes, indicated that “after the World Cup in Qatar, Saudi Arabia is trying to put its hand on every sporting event in the world, specifically on football, and it won hosting the Asian Championship in the year 2027, and is looking forward to hosting it.” World Cup 2030.
And the Israeli channel added, “In recent days, Saudi Arabia won, for the first time since its establishment, the hosting of the Club World Championship, or the FIFA Championship, which is expected to take place in December 2023.”
And the channel asked, “Because it is related to the FIFA tournament, the question arises that will Israeli fans be able to enter Saudi Arabia with an Israeli passport, to watch the matches directly, as happened in Qatar?
Also read: Israeli media: a painful slap in the World Cup in Qatar.. Arab hostility continues and normalization is fragile
And the channel indicated that the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it would “work with” FIFA “to allow the entry of Israeli fans to Saudi Arabia, as it did with regard to Qatar during the World Cup period.”
She pointed out that “this possibility is on the table, and” Israel “will work so that Israeli fans can enter Saudi Arabia during the tournament.”
And the Israeli channel mentioned that “a Saudi sports journalist spoke to us, without mentioning his name, saying that Israeli fans will be allowed to enter Saudi Arabia during the championship period.”
Earlier this month, Israeli media quoted the Israeli Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, as estimating that, during the current year, “a new normalization agreement will be signed with at least one country, and perhaps with two additional countries,” referring mainly to Saudi Arabia.
The occupation foreign minister told the Israeli channel “Kan” that “Saudi Arabia clearly realizes that Israel is not an enemy, but rather a partner to it.”
Last November, the Prime Minister of the Israeli occupation government, Benjamin Netanyahu, hinted that “one of his main goals in the coming period will be to sign a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia.”
This comes after Qatar hosted the FIFA World Cup, where it allowed the Israelis to participate in the attendance and encouragement in its stadiums, but the Israeli fans, as well as journalists and others, found it very difficult to reveal their identities, and some of them were forced to lie when asked about them, because of the Arab popular rejection of them.
The Israeli occupation seeks to promote normalization through the participation of the Israelis in international forums on the side of the Arabs, in an attempt to show that normalization with some Arab countries was not limited to official protocols, but the reality has shown during the past years that, despite the huge media campaign that accompanied the normalization agreements, the settlers remain The Israelis are enemies and occupiers in the eyes of the Arab peoples.