Israeli Journalists Ignored At World Cup In Qatar
Israeli reporters covering the FIFA World Cup in Qatar have complained of facing “humiliation” and “hate” because soccer fans from around the world refuse to speak to them.
In dozens of videos shared on social media, soccer fans are seen turning their backs on Israeli reporters once they find out that they come from the apartheid state. Arab fanatics, in particular, often take the opportunity to call for the liberation of Palestine and an end to Israeli apartheid. The situation has even forced Israeli reporters to awkwardly pretend they are from a different country. “We feel hated, surrounded by hostility and unwanted,” Raz Shechnik, media and music correspondent for Israeli news outlet Yedioth Ahronoth, wrote in an opinion piece published Nov. 27.
“After a while, we decided to claim that we were Ecuadorian when someone asked us where we were from,” Shechnik continues, stating that the experience has definitely not been “fun.”