Manama: Kuwait's interior ministry has denied reports that an Israeli journalist visited the country.
"No Israeli passport holder has been allowed into Kuwait," Shaikh Jaber Al Khalid told reporters, following a meeting with the parliamentary committee of interior and defence affairs. "I have explained this to the committee and its members understand the issue," he was quoted by local media as saying.
A heated debate about the alleged visit by an Israeli journalist has been raging in Kuwait, amidst official denials and insistence by local politicians that the details are disclosed.
"The State does not deal with people coming into Kuwait on the basis of their religion, but on the passport that they have," Shaikh Jaber said. "I can assure you that no Israeli national has, or will in the future, come into the country."
Kuwait, like most Arab countries, has no diplomatic ties with Israel.
In April, it denied reports that Israeli nationals had been allowed into the country and challenged those who support the allegation to present evidence.
“The reports that Israeli citizens, using Israeli passports, have been allowed into Kuwait are baseless and lack credibility,” the interior ministry said at the time. “Anyone seeking to visit Kuwait, but using a passport that has an Israeli stamp is barred from entering the country. Whoever has evidence about Israelis allowed into the country should present it to the relevant authorities to avoid confusion,” the ministry added.
In March, Eldad Beck, an Israeli journalist with Israel’s daily Yedioth Aharonot told how he was able to enter several Arab and Muslim countries without revealing his identity. However, Kuwait was not mentioned as one of the countries visited. The journalist said he hid his true identity by using a non-Israeli passport and told how he strolled about unnoticed in the marketplaces and mosques. He also sat outside a number of cafés.
Controversy on the matter has been re-ignited this month, however.
In an interview with Al Rai newspaper from his home in Berlin, the Haifa-born journalist reportedly said that the main reason behind his visit to Kuwait was, "based on interest in Kuwait's domestic situation, since the majority of the Gulf states share a similar concern with Israel regarding the Iranian nuclear threat."
"I'm an Israeli-European journalist who lives in Europe, and I visited Kuwait as part of my job, in order to provide people in Europe and Israel with insight into what's going on in that state and other Middle Eastern countries," he said.
Beck added that he’d used his German passport since, "it is impossible to use the Israeli passport to enter Kuwait and most Arab countries."
