AL - MONITOR
In a first, Israeli minister arrives in Saudi Arabia as envoy visits West Bank
Tourism Minister Haim Katz is the first Israeli minister to lead a delegation for an official United Nations event in Saudi Arabia.
Peace Now
Israeli activists with the Peace Now movement chant slogans while holding placards and flags of Arab states that are willing to conduct peaceful relations with the state of Israel, during a demonstration calling on the government to respond positively to the Saudi Initiative outside Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's residence in Jerusalem, March 28, 2007. -
Rina Bassist
@RinaBassist
September 26, 2023
Israeli Tourism Minister Haim Katz left for Riyadh Tuesday as the first Israeli minister to head an official delegation to Saudi Arabia, where he will take part in a conference of the United Nations Tourism Organization.
A statement issued by the Tourism Ministry said that during the two-day conference marking International Tourism Day, Katz will participate in several events and meetings with his international counterparts, particularly those from the Middle East.
The statement quoted Katz as saying, "Tourism is a bridge between nations. Partnership in tourism issues has the potential to bring hearts together and foster economic prosperity. I will work to create collaborations to promote tourism and Israel’s foreign relations.”
Israel was one of the founding members of the UN tourism body in 1975. Over the years, it has played an active role in the agency. Israel's Circassian village of Kfar Kama was included in the organization's "Best Tourism Villages 2022." It was one of 32 villages around the globe selected by the UN World Tourism Organization to promote tourism and safeguard rural communities and their landscapes.
Katz's trip follows UNESCO delegation
Katz's visit to Riyadh comes days after the arrival of a delegation from Israel’s Foreign Ministry for the UNESCO World Heritage Committee's 45th session. It was the first time that Israeli diplomats have publicly traveled to Saudi Arabia.
Israel quit UNESCO in 2018 after the United States left the organization, but is still a member of UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention. Israel’s ambassador to Multilateral Organizations in Paris, Haim Assraf, and the head of the Foreign Ministry's Middle East Bureau, Amir Weissbrod, both headed the delegation to Riyadh, along with representatives of Israel's Antiquities Authority.
The Israeli diplomats' journey to Riyadh’s UNESCO meeting encountered some problems, as Riyadh was in no hurry to offer the Israelis the required visas. Under great pressure from UNESCO, they were granted at the last moment.
During the UNESCO meeting, the members of the convention voted in favor of listing the Tell es-Sultan ruins near the ancient West Bank city of Jericho as a world heritage site in Palestine. Israel protested the decision and the Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling the move “another sign of Palestinians’ cynical use of UNESCO and politicization of the organization.”
A UNESCO source told Al-Monitor, "The work we did to get the Israeli delegation to Riyadh opened the way for Minister Katz to travel to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday." The source said that the Israeli delegation got its visas and was warmly welcomed in Riyadh, explaining, "The delegation participated at all the meetings throughout the week’s session. It was a sort of a test and it went well. After that, the Saudis decided to allow Katz to travel to Riyadh for the UNTWO conference."
The Jericho issue aside, the visas were clear gestures of goodwill on behalf of the kingdom toward Israel.
Last week, while in New York for the United Nations General Assembly summit, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in an interview with Fox News that “every day we get closer” to reaching a normalization deal with Israel.
In another gesture, a Saudi envoy stayed in the plenum during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Sept. 22 address to the United Nations. In past years, the Saudi delegation and several other Arab delegations used to exit the hall when the Israeli premier would speak.
Saudi envoy in West Bank
Katz's visit came as a Saudi envoy made a rare trip to the West Bank on Tuesday and reiterated that the Palestinian cause will be a "cornerstone" of any normalization deal the oil-rich kingdom may strike with Israel.
"The Palestinian matter is a fundamental pillar," Ambassador Nayef al-Sudairi told journalists after meeting top Palestinian diplomat Riyad al-Maliki in Ramallah, AFP reported.
Sudairi's visit, the first for Saudi Arabia in three decades to the West Bank, and Katz's visit to the kingdom come as Washington has urged its Middle East allies Israel and Saudi Arabia to normalize diplomatic relations.
Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2023/09/first-israeli-minister-arrives-saudi-arabia-envoy-visits-west-bank#ixzz8EY2KNYkU
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