Rabbi of the Western Wall Shmuel Rabinovitch has sent a letter of apology to "Globes" editor-in-chief Naama Sikuler about the discriminatory treatment received by the newspaper's diplomatic correspondent during her coverage of US Vice President Mike Pence's visit last week.
"I want to express my regret for the anguish suffered by your newspaper's diplomatic correspondent," Rabbi Rabinovich wrote to Sikuler.
In her letter to Rabinovitch, Sikuler had recounted how I, "Globes" diplomatic and political correspondent had been invited to cover Pence's visit to the Western Wall. The previous evening, I had checked out whether it would be possible to cover the visit without being kept at a distance because I'm a woman. US embassy staff had assured me that it would be possible to cover the event from a fair position.
Sikuler protested to Rabbi Rabinovitch that conditions for Schneider to cover the visit were unreasonable and discriminatory and offered to speak to Rabbi Rabinovitch at the earliest possible convenience in order to agree proper conditions for future events being covered.
Rabbi Rabinovitch wrote back, "I very much appreciate your approach and will be very happy to set a meeting and visit to the Western Wall soon. The invitation is for you and whoever else you want to bring with you."
He added as already mentioned, "I also want to take this opportunity to express my regret for the anguish suffered by your newspaper's diplomatic correspondent, and I hope that after our meeting things will be cleared up."
Rabbi Rabinovitch sent copies of the letter to the US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, Western Wall Heritage Foundation director general Solly Eliav and Western Wall media director Yohanna Bisraor.
During the visit of Pence to the Western Wall female journalists and photographer were placed further away from the action than their male counterparts in arrangement that were different from previous visits by leaders. The discrimination suffered by us - about 10 female journalists - was widely covered by the international media including CNN, the Washington Post, Newsweek, Huffington Post, the Guardian, and BBC.
"Globes" also wrote to US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman on the matter but has yet to receive a response.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 29, 2018
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