Ramallah: The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed great joy that increasing numbers of Arabs have been tapping into Israeli free-to-air channels to watch Fifa World Cup matches for free. The Israeli leader has supplied a special Hebrew-Arab sports dictionary for the Arab audience so they can understand some of the sports expressions used by the Israeli commentators.
Offir Gendelman, the spokesman for Netanyahu, published the dictionary on his Facebook page presenting it as a special gift from the Israeli prime minster to football fans from neighbouring countries who are tapping into Israeli channels to watch World Cup matches,
Huge numbers of football fans from around the Arab world have installed the Amos Israeli satellite to watch the Fifa tournament matches on the Israeli free-to-air channel. The broadcast commentaries are exclusively in Hebrew.
The total cost of installing the Amos dish and watching the World Cup matches is $10-20 (Dh36.7-73.4) instead of a heavy subscription.
Sources in the West Bank said that the Hebrew commentary on the matches had not been a problem for viewers in the Palestinian territories as the majority of the Palestinians there understand Hebrew and speak it fluently.
The online dictionary provided by the Israeli office of the prime minister has initially been warmly received by the Arab viewers, many of whom have downloaded the dictionary and used it.
Netanyahu said he tried to provide Arab commentators for the matches but was unable to. Instead, he promised to provide Arab viewers with Arab commentators for the next World Cup and for other key international competitions.
Several Arab viewers have thanked the Israeli prime minister and his spokesman for giving them the chance to watch the Fifa matches without the need to subscribe to beIN Sports, which holds the exclusive broadcast rights for the World Cup in the Middle East and North Africa.
One respondent, Eng Afifi, termed Gendelman “a respectable person” as he thanked the government for the free broadcast of the matches.
Eyas Saba suggested that Israeli Prime Minister appoint an Arab Israeli commentator who works for an Israeli radio station to comment on the matches in Arabic, while Ahmad Fouad Khaled Al Amrawy agreed that an Arab commentator for the matches would complete viewers’ joy.
The viewers said that they have learnt all Hebrew terms and expressions for football and that some of them even gone to free online courses to learn more Hebrew. Political analysts have said that Israelis have taken advantage of the occasion to promote the Hebrew language.
