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Saturday 16 August 2014 - 07:25

The Saudis and Palestine – crocodile’s tears or political apathy

Story Code : 405028
The Saudis and Palestine – crocodile’s tears or political apathy
With over 2000 dead and 10,000 wounded, Saudi Arabia has yet to do something about Israel.

As put forward by analysts, Saudi Arabia needs to decide if it wants to support Palestinians in their resistance to occupation, or support the siege manned by Israel and Egypt until Gaza is demilitarized.

When criticized over their policy, Saudi Arabia was quick to claim to love and respect all Palestinians. Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf Al Saud wrote: "To think that Saudi Arabia, which has committed itself to supporting and protecting the rights of all Palestinians to self-determination and sovereignty would knowingly support the Israeli action is quite frankly a grotesque insult …The Palestinian people are our brothers and sisters -whether they are Muslim Arabs or Christian Arabs. Be assured we, the people and Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, will never ever give up on them, we will never do anything to harm them, we will do all we can to help them in their rightful claim to their own homeland and return of lands taken illegally from them."

But however one looks at it, Saudi Arabia has little to really help Palestinians.

Saudi Arabia told Israel on Tuesday that it must reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians if it is to survive as a nation, and criticized Muslims for being divided and failing to stop the Jewish state attacking its Arab neighbors.

“Israel has to realize that peace is the only solution for its survival,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the world's largest Muslim body, on the situation in the Gaza Strip.

“As we see, Israel does not shy away from taking its terror to any level, with total disregard to any laws, rules, religious edicts or humanitarian considerations to achieve its goals.”

“Its only objective is to uproot the Palestinian existence wherever it is,” Prince Saud told the meeting in Jeddah, attended by Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and ministers from the 56-member OIC.

Offering 300 million Saudi riyals ($80 million) for medical relief aid, Prince Saud called for support for Egyptian efforts to end the fighting, saying Muslim divisions had allowed Israel to repeatedly launch wars against Muslims.

“Would it have been possible for Israel to carry out an aggression after another, had the Islamic nation been united?” Prince Saud asked.
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