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Tunisian journalists’ union rejects claim that its members visited Israel

March 17, 2017 at 11:17 am

Image from the twitter account of Ofir Gendelmen, claiming that

The National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists has denied claims by the Israeli prime minister’s spokesman that he had received a number of journalists from the Maghreb region.

The syndicate said in a statement on Wednesday that the photos posted by the prime minister’s spokesman do not include Tunisian journalists, adding that it “had opened an investigation into the matter”.

A spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister, Ofir Gendelman, published on his Twitter account on Monday photos of a group of people claiming they were Journalists from Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia during their visit to Israel.

“Journalists from Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia visit Israel following an invitation from the foreign ministry in order to get to know it and its people and they prayed in Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

Ofir Gendelman published the photos in question on his Twitter account on Monday.

Ziyad Dabbar from the syndicate’s executive office insists that no Tunisian journalist is in the photographs. He explained that preliminary investigations have revealed that a Moroccan blogger was among the people pictured and suggested that if any Tunisians were taking part in such a visit they could also be bloggers and not professional journalists.

He added that the syndicate’s position is clear and in line with the Tunisian people which reject all forms of normalisation with the Israeli occupation, pointing out that releasing the photos could be part of an Israeli propaganda campaign.