Jewish person visiting American friend in Qatar

8/11/2020 9:02:15 AM

There are two options
1-Do not go, in theory they cannot detain on the basis of religion and since you may go as a US citizen and you need no visa for Qatar, you may THEORETICALLY face no problems, but in practice, as soon as they know you’re Jewish, they’ll be gaming you as they wish.
2-Pretend to be a non-Jew, lie if they go to the unlikely extent of asking your religion.

3/28/2020 8:20:29 PM

This might seem like an oddball answer, but I’ve done the following with a British colleague of mine that was Jewish when we were travelling into Saudi Arabia a few years back:

  • I gave him my golden cross on a neck chain (I’ve been raised as a catholic)
  • We met up before border control
  • He put it over his polo shirt at border control
  • He hid it under his polo shirt afterwards
  • We both forgot to ask for / give it back when we left, so I’ll have to fly into the UK or he’ll have to fly into Germany to give it back.

😉

So ask your American catholic colleagues if you can borrow theirs and give it back when you return! >:-)

P.S. Leave your tefillin back home… ;P
P.P.S. He has a non-jewish name so YMMV

3/28/2020 1:19:24 PM

Ask other Jewish people and don’t trust random strangers that are not Jewish. You are playing with fire here, since there is a not-so-remote possibility you will be detained as an ‘Israeli spy’ in a dictatorship with no human rights culture.

Qatar funds Hamas and does not recognize Israel. If you have Israeli citizenship you could be in trouble, if you visited Israel or know Israeli people you could also land in trouble.

How would they know? That’s a function of how Jewish is your name and how much work they (or their intelligence) will do on your name, looking it up on Facebook, checking it against leaked lists of Israeli citizens and so on.

I don’t want to scare you so I’ll say that the probability that something bad could happen to you is very low. But it is there. And if something happens you will be in a dictatorial country at the mercy of their government.

To minimize your chances of trouble I’d suggest you speak with people in the Jewish community who know people who went to Qatar or to other Arab countries and keep a very low profile there.

3/27/2020 7:50:46 AM

No, there is virtually no risk to visiting Qatar as a Jew, nobody even needs to know you’re one since US citizens can visit without a visa and your religion is never asked. You may draw some attention if dressed in full-on Hasidic clothing though.

That said, for time being this is a moot point, since Qatar has banned all non-citizens from entering until the coronavirus crisis calms down.

Credit:stackoverflow.com‘

About me

Hello,My name is Aparna Patel,I’m a Travel Blogger and Photographer who travel the world full-time with my hubby.I like to share my travel experience.

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