Israeli journalists to set precedent at Bahrain conference

OCCUPIED AL-QUDS: A handful of Israeli journalists were making their way to Bahrain on Monday after getting special permission to attend a US-led economic conference on Israeli-Palestinian peace, hosted by the Gulf kingdom.

Their apparently unprecedented visit is facilitated by the involvement of the United States, an ally of both countries, which do not have diplomatic relations. Israelis are normally barred from most Arab countries, except when they who enter on second passports.

“I’ve been travelling the world to cover events for 13 years, but this one is the most exciting,” tweeted Barak Ravid, correspondent for Israel’s Channel 13 private TV. “This is the first time Israeli journalists will be allowed to enter Bahrain,” he wrote in a post that included a selfie of himself on a plane he said was heading from Jordan to the Gulf kingdom. “Not a usual flight route for an Israeli journalist... Proud to enter with an Israeli passport,” journalist Ariel Kahana from the Israel Hayom daily tweeted when he arrived in Bahrain.