Saudi Arabia distancing from Palestinian terrorists

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Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury

Due to progressive policies of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, the Kingdom is gradually walking out from the decade-old mistakes of extending support to Islamists and jihadists, including the Palestinian terrorists and mega-terror outfit Hamas. Under the new realities, Palestinians also have started sensing the future, where they would not get any support or sympathy from most of the Arab nations except Qatar and Jordan.

Recently, a person named Muhammad Shehada, who a writer and civil society activist from the Gaza Strip and a student of Development Studies at Lund University, Sweden wrote an article titled ‘Next on Saudi Arabia’s hit list is the Palestinian people’ in the New Arab website. In the article, this Palestinian student wrote: “The holy month of Ramadan – usually a time for self-cleansing, compassion, solidarity and unity throughout the Muslim and Arab world, is approaching its halfway mark. This year, however, it has become an opportunity for Saudi Arabia to the sow seeds of division against the Palestinian people, and attempt to flatter Israel.

“It started with a popular Saudi Ramadan series called “Exit 7” airing on the kingdom’s MBC channel. The second episode included a controversial discussion that attempts to normalize business dealings with Israel, by portraying Palestinians as “the real enemy” who are hostile towards Saudi Arabia, and ungrateful for its support.

“Simultaneously, Saudi twitter trolls and bots began circulating the hashtag #PalestineIsNotMyCause, accusing Palestinians of selling their lands to Israel and being raised to hate Saudi Arabia; tired claims that Israel routinely makes to discredit the Palestinian struggle for freedom and dignity.

This trending hashtag was widely and immediately praised by Israeli lobbyists as a sign of convergence between the Gulf and Israel, which indicates an organized and centralized campaign, rather than the organic opinions of individual twitter users.

“Shortly after, Saudi Arabia’s most-read newspaper, Okaz, ran an article entitled “Palestinians: A Sea of Hatred that Doesn’t Run Out!” written by a prominent Saudi regime loyalist, in which he repeats the mistaken cliché of Palestinians caving to Israel, and systematically slandering Riyadh out of hatred of the Saudi people and government.

“Skyline, a Stockholm-based human rights organization, issued a statement last Tuesday warning of the implications of Saudi hate speech against Palestinians. The statement documented dozens of cases of Palestinians who’ve suffered discriminatory and hate incidents in Saudi Arabia since the beginning of Ramadan.

“The growing anti-Palestinian rhetoric in Saudi Arabia suggests a grim picture in which only manufactured pro-normalization rhetoric is allowed to rise, while popular pro-Palestinian sentiment is systematically suppressed and disincentivized by the regime.

“While Saudi regime loyalists such as journalist Malha Abdullah boast openly about receiving “encouragement, gifts and rewards” from the government for their writings, Saudi anti-normalization activists enjoy no rewards, no tolerance, or even minimal respect for their freedom of speech”.

In another report titled ‘Saudi Ramadan series blasted for attacking ‘ungrateful’ Palestinians and promoting ‘normal relations’ with Israel’, the New Arab website wrote:

Saudi Arabia has come under fire once again after a popular Ramadan series broadcast on the kingdom’s MBC channel attacked Palestinians and encouraged normalization with Israel.

“Episode 2 of series “Exit 7” brings together superstar Saudi actors Nasser Al-Qasabi and Rashid Al-Shamrani in a scene which sees them discuss dealing with Israelis for business expansion purposes.

Al-Qasabi’s character shuts down the debate noting “Israelis are enemies”, only to be told “the real enemy is the one who shows no gratitude for your stance, dismisses your sacrifices and curses you day and night, more than the Israelis”.

Al-Shamrani’s character continues to say: “we entered wars for the sake of Palestine, we cut oil for Palestine and the day it became an authority, we paid its salaries even though we [the Saudi people] have more right over this money. Yet they take every opportunity to attack Saudi Arabia”.

The clip was quickly shared across social media platforms with activists across the board outraged over Saudi Arabia’s attempt to manipulate millions in its ongoing bid to normalize relations with Israel”.

Saudi Arabia’s excellent diplomacy under the magnanimous leadership of Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman has already been appreciated throughout the world. The Kingdom rightly has decided to ignore the madness of those Palestinian terrorists and jihad-mongers and initiate appropriate actions in normalizing relations with the Jewish State, and gradually establish full diplomatic relations by recognizing Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel.

Other Muslim nations in the world, including Bangladesh should follow the Israel policy of the Kingdom, for the sake of combating terrorism and jihad in unison with the State of Israel.

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is an internationally acclaimed multi-award-winning anti-jihadist journalist, counter-terrorism specialist and editor of Blitz

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