US delegation on religious freedom cut short its visit to Saudi Arabia after one of its members was asked to remove his Jewish head covering

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said its delegation was near Riyadh visiting Diriyah, a historic town and Unesco world heritage site, when the commission’s chair, the Orthodox rabbi Abraham Cooper, “refused their requests that he remove his religious head covering”.

Cooper said in a statement: “No one should be denied access to a heritage site, especially one intended to highlight unity and progress, simply for existing as a Jew.”

The USCIRF said Cooper and its vice-chair, the Rev Frederick Davie, were invited to tour the site last Tuesday as part of their official visit when, after several delays to the tour, officials requested that Cooper remove his kippah “while at the site and any time he was to be in public, even though the Saudi ministry of foreign affairs had approved the site visit”.