Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries condemned on Sunday comments by Israel's prime minister who seemed to imply in an interview that a Palestinian state could be set up on Saudi land.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's comments, which some Israeli media interpreted as a joke, were made in light of the region already being on high alert after US President Donald Trump suggested taking over the territory and relocating its residents abroad.
Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit stated on Sunday that the rationale behind Netanyahu's statements “is unacceptable and reflects a complete detachment from reality,” noting that such ideas “are nothing more than mere fantasies or illusions”.
The Saudi foreign ministry emphasized its "categorical rejection to such statements that seek to deflect attention away from the ongoing crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people in Gaza."
The ministry statement welcomed "the condemnation, disapproval and utter rejection issued by the sister countries towards what Benjamin Netanyahu stated with regard to the displacement of the Palestinian people".
In a television interview on Thursday, right-wing Israeli journalist Yaakov Bardugo discussed with Netanyahu the possibility of diplomatic normalization with Saudi Arabia when he mistakenly stated that, according to Riyadh, there would be “no progress without a Saudi state”.
“Palestinian state?” Netanyahu replied.
“Unless you want the Palestinian state to be in Saudi Arabia,” the Israeli prime minister joked. “They have a lot of land available.”
Netanyahu continued to discuss the negotiations that preceded the so-called Abraham Accords, where several Arab countries established diplomatic relations with Israel, stating: “I think we should allow this process to take its course.”
The suggestion of a Palestinian state outside of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank has drawn widespread criticism from regional actors, including Qatar, Egypt, and the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, which condemned the comments as "racist".
Jordan's foreign ministry described them as "inflammatory and a clear breach of international law", emphasizing that the Palestinians have the "right to establish an independent, sovereign state" alongside Israel.
The foreign ministry of the United Arab Emirates condemned Netanyahu's comments as "reprehensible and provocative" in a statement, labeling them "a blatant infringement of international law and the United Nations charter".
For Palestinians, any attempt to forcibly move them out of Gaza would bring up painful memories of what the Arab world refers to as the "Nakba" or catastrophe — the mass displacement of Palestinians that occurred during Israel's establishment in 1948.
In its statement, Saudi Arabia said "this extremist and occupying mentality fails to grasp the profound significance of the Palestinian land to the Palestinians."
It honestly said, ""such a mindset does not believe the Palestinian people deserve to live at all, as it has completely devastated the Gaza Strip" and killed tens of thousands "without the slightest sense of human compassion or moral accountability"."
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