OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: An Israeli minister on Wednesday denounced as ‘stupid and harmful’ to Israel-Gulf ties a TV report by a journalist who entered Islam’s holiest site Makkah despite a ban on non-Muslim visits and who apologised for the event after an online backlash.

Israel’s Channel 13 News aired a 10-minute report from Saudi Arabia, , by its journalist Gil Tamary on Monday, in which he was travelling in a car by the Grand Mosque in Makkah and climbing the Mount of Mercy, which oversees the plain of Arafat.

Accompanied by a person who appears to be a local guide and whose face is blurred to prevent his identification, Tamary lowers his voice while speaking to the camera in Hebrew, and at times switches to English to avoid revealing he is Israeli.

“I’m sorry (but) it was a stupid thing to do and take pride in,” Israel’s regional cooperation minister Esawi Freij, who is Muslim, told public broadcaster Kan. “It was irresponsible and damaging to air this report just for the sake of ratings.”

Freij said the report hurt US-encouraged efforts to gradually move Israel and Saudi Arabia toward more normal ties, similar to the 2020 diplomatic deals with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Riyadh does not recognise Israel, saying this would require addressing Palestinian statehood goals first.

The Twitter hashtag “A Jew in Mecca’s Grand Mosque” trended after the report was aired.—Reuters