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The Saudis gave the team VIP treatment.
- 31 August 2023
- 12:01 am
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- 31 August 2023
- 12:01 am
Yuval Blizovsky, Roee Feldman and Naseem Eissat of Team Israel during the Round of 16 Match against Team Italy at the FIFAe Nations Cup 2023 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, July 13, 2023. (Photo: Joosep Martinson/FIFA)
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A team of Israelis who participated in a recent global video game competition in Saudi Arabia said Monday that they were treated like royalty and blended right in with the other international players meeting in the Gulf kingdom.
The FIFA-sponsored e-football event came as U.S.-brokered talks are underway in an effort to forge a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The team, which consisted of three gamers, their coach and their manager, entered Riyadh via a connecting flight in Dubai using their Israeli passports and were provided with security detail 24/7 during their week-and-a-half visit last month, team manager Zvika Kosman said.
“It was very interesting to be in a country which we have no official relations with but within a minute you get used to it and it seems like any other place in the world,” Kosman told JNS.
He said the team was given VIP treatment from the moment they landed at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport until their departure. Police whisked them to a side office to have their Israeli passports scanned on both arrival and departure, bypassing local airport officials, Kosman added.
“The truth is I felt like a king,” Naseem Eissat, 20, one of the players, said a telephone interview. “We were hosted in the best possible way. I felt completely comfortable and at ease.”
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Teammate Roee Feldman, 21, said, “We didn’t know what to expect because it was our first time in Saudi Arabia, but I can say that they treated us in the best possible way and made us feel the best in the world. It was a pleasure to see the way the local population reacted to our visit.”
The team members’ families back in Israel were supportive of their trip, albeit some were concerned over the inaugural visit to Saudi Arabia, Kosman said. During their stay, members of the delegations regularly chatted with their families over WhatsApp.
Yuval Blizovsky, Naseem Eissat and Roee Feldman pose during the FIFAe Nations Cup 2023 portrait session in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, July 8, 2023. (Photo: Gonzalo Arroyo/FIFA)
The annual FIFAe World Cup sees players compete in the latest version of the immensely popular soccer video game.
The team members, who knew their fellow participants from previous games, wore uniforms with “Israel” written on them in English, and the Israeli national anthem, “Hatikvah,” was played at the opening ceremony in accordance with FIFA regulations.
All the team members voiced the hope that the two countries will reach a normalization agreement this year and that the squad from Israel will be able to travel to the kingdom like any other foreign team.
“We’ll make do with a downgrade in our visit,” Kosman quipped.
Etgar Lefkovits was Jerusalem correspondent at the Jerusalem Post, and also worked at the Jerusalem bureau of the New York Times. He was subsequently in Washington D.C. as Israel and Middle East analyst to the US Congress, and then served as Foreign Affairs Director to Israel’s Minister for Social Equality.
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Thank you for choosing TheJ.Ca as your source for Canadian Jewish News.
We do news differently!
Our positioning as a Zionist News Media platform sets us apart from the rest. While other Canadian Jewish media are advocating increasingly biased progressive political and social agendas, TheJ.Ca is providing more and more readers with a welcome alternative and an ideological home.
We revealed the incursion of anti-Israel progressive elements such as IfNotNow into our communities. We have exposed the distorted hateful agenda of the “progressive” left political radicals who brought Linda Sarsour to our cities, and we were first to report on many disturbing incidents of Nazi-based hate towards Jews across Canada.
But we can’t do it alone. We need your HELP!
Our ability to thrive and grow in 2020 and beyond depends on the generosity of committed readers and supporters like you.
Monthly support is a great way to help us sustain our operations. We greatly appreciate any contributions you can make to support Jewish Journalism.
We thank you for your ongoing support.
Happy reading!
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