Saudi Prince Turki: Israel takes neighboring Arab lands and not the reverse

On Sunday at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Manama Dialogue in Bahrain Saudi Arabia’s former ambassador to the US, Prince Turki al-Faisal Al Saud, criticized Israel. However Israel’s foreign minister opposed his comments

Prince Turki, who started his speech by saying that his remarks reflected his personal opinion, criticized Israel’s actions toward the Palestinian people and describing Israel as the last Western colonizing power in the Middle East

He related that Israel had expelled Palestinians after the 1948 war and they repeated that calumny after the 1967 war when more of the inhabitants that remained after the 1948 war were equally dispossessed of their lands. He also stated that Israel has occupied neighboring Arab lands and not the reverse, adding that what the Arabs have waged since 2002 is the Arab Peace Initiate, which all Israeli governments rejected at every turn.

He also appealed to the Israeli border wall, and calling it the apartheid wall, adding that it prevents the inhabitants of the land they colonized from returning to their stolen properties.

The former ambassador also evoked that although the International Court of Justice issuing a ruling that the wall is illegal, Israel has incarcerated [Palestinians] in concentration camps under the flimsiest of security accusations, young and old, women and men, who are rotting there without recourse to justice. They are demolishing homes as they wish, and they assassinate whomever they want.

The comments of Prince Turki when neighboring Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates recently normalize ties and establish relations with Israel, also known as the Abrahamic Accords. Prince Turki said that if the Abrahamic Accords are based on geography, then there can be no Abrahamic Accords without the inclusion of the land of Abraham, Mecca. Prince Turki repeated that the Arab Peace Initiative must be implemented with regard to Palestine.

Indeed, Saudi Arabia has affirmed that any normalization between it and Israel would only occur with a lasting peace agreement involving a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Kingdom publicly remains to show its solid support for the Arab Peace Initiative, which is a 2002 Saudi-sponsored agreement that offers Israel full relations with all Arab states in return for Palestinian statehood on territory Israel occupied in 1967.

Prince Turki called on the end of his speech on the Israeli people to take the extended hand of peace and end this tragic charade, adding that only then can we together meet the other colonizing pretender that boasts about its control of four Arab capitals: Beirut, Damascus, Sanaa and Baghdad, in reference to Iran.

Whereas, Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, who spoke immediately after Prince Turki, stated: I would like to express my regret on the comments of the Saudi representative. He also added: I don’t believe that they reflect the spirit and the changes taking place in the Middle East.