The 2022 World Cup games opened yesterday with the opening whistle of the match between the host team Qatar and the rival Ecuador . Thousands of fans came from all over the world to see the players fight for the title of world champion, among them a significant number of Israeli fans. News 12 correspondent for Qatar, Ohad Hamu, spoke with Anat Davidov and Gideon Oko on 103fm and told about the excitement on the streets of the country.

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At the beginning of their conversation, his father-in-law told about the place, and about being an Israeli in Qatar: "I wouldn't say it's brave to be here, it's not the Jenin camp. It's not pleasant, in some situations at least. The whole Middle East is here, everyone is here, it includes everyone. We thought we were coming to an event that was completely sporting, detached from politics, but when you tell where you come from, it seems to me that until now almost 100 percent of the people I approached politely objected."

He noted: "There are also others, a little more vocal, one of them is from a group of guys from Lebanon with whom we had an incident, they start talking to us and when they hear that we are from Israel, they start confronting us. Politics is present. There is a big elephant in the room here, no doubt , this elephant is a kind of opportunity that the eyes of the whole world are focused on here to voice the voice of protest. The World Cup is a very national event, some would even say nationalistic. For sure and for sure this is happening in the Arab world for the first time in history, that half of the Arab world is here, there are crowds here."

"You really see the North Africans in huge numbers, right here from our immediate neighborhood, and they know that everyone is looking here," he explained. "By the way, the fact that the Israelis are allowed to come here is why we encounter these reactions. I want to believe that it will remain at the level of refusals for interviews and nothing more."

Regarding the fear of harsh things happening to the Israelis in Qatar, his father-in-law said: "I'm not afraid, among other things, for the simple reason that in the end we're talking about a country with a very rigid government, you don't play with the Qataris. There are a lot of policemen brought here from Turkey to maintain order. There is a feeling of complete security, if I were a citizen of any other country in the world, we probably wouldn't be talking about this issue. There is a certain sensitivity, I'm not afraid that it could develop into other districts, in the end they came together for football."

The opening match of the 2022 World Cup (Photo: Reuters)

"She has been preparing for this event for 12 years, imagine what it is," he said of the Qatar team. "You can buy everything with money, right down to talent. You can't buy that anymore. Yesterday they lost, a big disappointment, we were outside the field, 30 minutes before we saw the Exodus, thousands of people who just run away from the field very disappointed. But okay, for some, just The victory is the existence of the World Cup."

About the atmosphere in the street, he said that "It's a happy atmosphere. The big plus of this World Cup is the fact that everything is in one place. This is not Brazil where you have to fly between pitches. Today there are World Cups between countries, here we are talking about a very small place. The atmosphere is good, We expect, they expect, something like a million and a half fans during this entire period."

Assisted in the preparation of the article: Shani Romano 103fm