Saudi Arabia Rejects Netanyahu’s Remarks on Displacing Palestinians
Saudi Arabia issued a strong condemnation on Sunday, rejecting comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about displacing Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. The country’s Foreign Ministry, in an official statement, emphasized it would not accept any suggestion that Palestinians be relocated to Saudi territory.
Recent remarks by Israeli officials sparked controversy when they spoke of potentially establishing a Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia. The scenario appeared to stem from a slip of the tongue during an interview on Channel 14, a pro-Netanyahu outlet. The interviewer mistakenly said “Saudi state” instead of “Palestinian state,” prompting the prime minister to make a joke before the error was corrected. The Saudi statement, while referring to Netanyahu by name, did not specifically mention his quip. Instead, it took aim at the broader concept of displacing Palestinians, describing such ideas as “an occupying extremist mindset.”
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“This occupying extremist mindset does not comprehend what the Palestinian territory means for the brotherly people of Palestine and its conscientious, historical and legal association with that land,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry declared. It expressed gratitude toward other Arab nations—specifically Egypt and Jordan—that also denounced the notion of relocating Palestinians away from their homeland. Cairo labeled the idea a “direct infringement of Saudi sovereignty,” while Jordan likewise issued a statement condemning the suggestion.
The discussion around the fate of Palestinians in Gaza has been exacerbated by US President Donald Trump’s proposal earlier in the week, in which he suggested that the United States should “take over the Gaza Strip” from Israel and transform it into a “Riviera of the Middle East” once Palestinians are resettled elsewhere. Trump’s remarks drew widespread condemnation from Arab states, which are already closely watching a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the ongoing Gaza conflict.
