MPs lambast officials for sheer negligence over Israeli Journalist’s entry into Algeria

The case of the Israeli journalist who traveled last April to Algeria with journalists who accompanied the French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on a visit to Algeria and the compilation of a long report on the current situation in Algeria, published in the Israeli newspaper “Maariv”, has experienced new twists.

This case seriously offended numerous members of Parliament who requested from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ramtane Lamamra full explanations about the entry into Algeria of Israeli journalist, Gideon Kutz, without being signaled by the services of the Consulate of Algeria in Paris, nor by the Consul himself who put his signature on the passport of the latter.

According to the content of his question, the “Green Party” MP, Nasser Hamdaoudouche, asked the head of Algerian diplomacy to provide exhaustive explanations on the entry into Algeria of Israeli journalist “Gideon Kutz,” working for the Israeli newspaper Maariv, among the press delegation that accompanied the French Premier on a visit Algeria in early April 2016.

He dubbed this gross lapse on the part of those concerned “as a blow dealt to national sovereignty”.

The MP wondered how the journalist in question was able to secure a visa, adding that the Algerian government has taken a clear position by refusing visas to journalists of “Canal+” TV Channel for having published the photo of President Bouteflika in an article on those leaders mentioned in the so-called “Panama papers” scandal before issuing a denial, and how the country’s authorities have failed to identify the Israeli journalist “who has made intrusions into the Government and the Presidency” and published replies in the Israeli “Maariv” newspaper to questions he asked to several Algerian cabinet ministers, including Interior and Local Assemblies Minister Noureddine Bedoui during his “intrusive” stay in the country.

For MP Hamdadouche, the trip to Algeria by the Israeli journalist is a kind of “normalization” with the Zionists who make France a door to infiltrate into Algeria.

He also questioned the role of state institutions, including the Foreign Ministry, including the granting of a visa to the journalist, whose name has a strong Jewish-sounding, and who took advantage of his trip to Algeria to compile a lengthy report about the situation in the country that was broadcast on “Israeli TV”.

The Algerian officials should have, in the MP’s view, known that he is not French and that he does not work for a French media outlet.