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TV reporters from Israel are being told they are "not welcome" while covering the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, with soccer fans refusing to speak to them.
An independent British-Syrian journalist, Richard Medhurst, has posted a number of videos on Twitter, which he titled: "A thread of World Cup football fans refusing to speak to Israeli channels."
The reporters are being told, live on air, that Israel "doesn't exist" in a number of tense confrontations in the Gulf state.
Before the World Cup began an English-born resident in Qatar who preferred to remain anonymous told Newsweek that "authorities are refusing entry of people with Israeli passports."
A thread of World Cup football fans refusing to speak to isreali channels pic.twitter.com/N7NOoZXYPm
— Richard Medhurst (@richimedhurst) November 27, 2022
This was refuted by the Qatari authorities who told Newsweek: "No one is being refused a visa based on location or where they are from. The reason why some may be refused visas is because they do not have the Hayya card which you can only get if you hold a ticket to a game during the World Cup.
"Any residents and citizens are welcome to come without a match ticket, but general tourist visas are not being issued from November until the final match on December 18."
Moav Vardi, the head of the foreign news desk at Israeli public broadcaster Kan 11, was confronted by a fan live on air, as he looked to speak to a Saudi Arabia fan after their defeat by Poland on Saturday.
Saudi Arabia, along with a number of other Arab nations, do not recognize Israel as a state.
He was told by the fan: "There is no Israel. Go please. You are not welcome here. This is Qatar, this is our country—you are not welcome here. There is only Palestine. There is no Israel."
This followed another Israeli journalist, Raz Shechnik, posting a number of tweets in which he shared his experiences at the tournament, many of which are not positive.
He wrote on Twitter, of the hostile reactions he has faced while covering the World Cup: "Listen, we didn't want to write these things. We always thought that we, the journalists, are not the story.
"Certainly not in the biggest event of world sports next to the Olympics. But after ten days in Doha, it is impossible not to share with you what we are going through here.
"We feel hated. We feel the hostility and we feel unwelcome. How did a friendly Qatari tell us at first glance when he asked and answered that we were from Israel? 'I would like to say welcome to you. But you are really not blessed. Fly away from here as fast as possible.' So. clear and smooth. And he is another 'host,' not some Lebanese fan who is passing by. Now let's not pretend huh?"
The featured conversations tend to follow the same format in which soccer fans are initially happy to speak to the reporters until they are told that they are being filmed for Israeli TV.
At this point, the mood seems to sour on each occasion and the reporter is told, in no uncertain terms, why they will not be given the interview they had hoped for.
Shechnik concluded in his thread on Twitter: "Take it wherever you want from here. It's a great World Cup, right, but we'll leave here with a very bad feeling. On the other hand, what fun it will be to return to our country. We have no other country."
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