Saudi blogger attacked in Old City for ‘normalizing’ ties with Israel
Mahmoud Saud, a Saudi law student and blogger who is part of an unprecedented six-person media delegation from the Arab world, was cursed, spat at, jeered and told to “go to a synagogue” on Monday as he went to the Temple Mount.
One video clip showed Saud walking on the Temple Mount as people shouted epithets at him such as “traitor,” “animal” and “normalizer,” and small boys approached and spat in his face. Another video clip showed plastic chairs and sticks being thrown at him as he walked in the market in the Old City.
Saud is the only member of the six-person delegation who was willing to go public, having agreed to be photographed in the Knesset with Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Avi Dichter.
Dichter released a photo, even though a day earlier a Foreign Ministry official would not give any identifying information about the members of the delegation – which also includes citizens from Iraq, Jordan and other countries with whom Israel does not have diplomatic relations – because of concern for their safety when they return home, he said.
Saud, according to the Foreign Minister official, was unconcerned about going public.
According to a statement by Dichter, one member of the delegation said, “This visit to Israel is like touring a dreamland. If only we would be able to bring hundreds of people from our countries, so that when they go back they can tell what they saw and felt.”
Dichter told the delegation that Israel decided to move forward with contacts in the Arab world, first and foremost Saudi Arabia, “and not to wait until the Palestinian Authority decides to fight terrorism.”
Shai Cohen, the Knesset’s diplomatic adviser, told the delegation that the Knesset is interested in forging ties with parliaments in the Arab states.
“We separate between progress on the peace process with the Palestinians and deepening our ties with the moderate Arab world,” he said.