Tue 23 July 2019:
Palestinians spat, cursed and threw chairs at a Saudi blogger who was visiting the Old City of Israeli occupied East Jerusalem on Monday. The Saudi visitor, named by Israeli public radio as Mohammed Saud, was one of six invitees from Arab states brought to Israel by its foreign ministry to give them fresh viewpoints on the country. Such visits have been held before, but Iraq and Saudi Arabia were taking part for the first time.
#Palestinian in #Jerusalem old city are throwing chairs & spitting at a #Saudi journalist who is part of Saudi journalist delegation which is officially visiting #Israel & will meet with Israeli PM #Netanyahu, today is tense day as Israeli demolished 70 apartments in Jlm pic.twitter.com/7sBBZYZc5s
— Nasser Atta (@nasseratta5) July 22, 2019
Video posted online showed mainly young Palestinians spitting, cursing and throwing plastic chairs at Saud as he walked on Monday through the Old City of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem. The spitting and abuse continued as he toured the Al-Aqsa mosque complex. “Go and pray with the Jews, go and pray in the Knesset (Israeli parliament). What are you doing here?” one man shouted.
The hashtag ‘Saudi kicked out of Jerusalem’ trended online after video footage of the incident went viral. Tensions in Jerusalem are running high following the Israeli demolition of dozens of Palestinian homes on Monday. Saud’s social media feed is littered with pro-Israel, pro-Netanyahu tweets and his Twitter bio features ‘Only Bibi’, a reference to the Israeli prime minister, in Hebrew.
” برا يا حيوان” #شاهد ماذا فعل الفلسطينيون مع مطبع سعودي دخل العاصمة الفلسطينية والمسجد الأقصى بحماية قوات الاحتلال. pic.twitter.com/p9Vfe6Wk95
— وكالة شهاب (@ShehabAgency) July 22, 2019
In a recent interview with Israeli army radio the Saudi blogger said “Israeli people are similar to mine, they are like my family”. He also posed for a photo with far-right Israeli activist Yehuda Glick, who is part of a movement advocating the destruction of Al-Aqsa Mosque and its replacement with a Jewish Temple. Saud and other journalists, including Jordanians, were to visit Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, parliament and holy sites, among others, the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement. Ofir Gendelman, a spokesman for Netanyahu, described Saud as a “peace activist” and condemned his assault.
“When he came to pray at the #AlAqsaMosque, Palestinian thugs attacked him & spat on him, thus defiling this holy place,” Gendelman wrote on Twitter Tuesday.
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