Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested on Thursday that Palestinians should establish a state in Saudi Arabia, rather than in their homeland, in his latest dismissal of Palestinians’ right to self-determination.
“The Saudis can create a Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia; they have a lot of land over there,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 14.
The remarks come as Saudi Arabia and Israel seem even further away from normalising relations, over a year after officials in the US said an agreement was close.
Riyadh repeatedly said over the past year that only a clear pathway towards Palestinian statehood would lead it to establish formal ties with Israel, but Netanyahu rejected the idea outright on Thursday, calling it a “security threat to Israel”.
“Especially not a Palestinian state,” he said. “After October 7? Do you know what that is? There was a Palestinian state, it was called Gaza. Gaza, led by Hamas, was a Palestinian state and look what we got.”
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The interview took place while Netanyahu was on an official visit to the United States.
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It followed a joint press conference with Donald Trump, in which the US president announced his plan for the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza to make the Palestinian enclave the “Riviera of the Mediterranean”, with the US taking over the territory.
Normalisation with Saudi Arabia was discussed between the two leaders and, in addition to his strong dismissal of the key Saudi condition of the establishment of a Palestinian state, Netanyahu insisted that peace between Israel and the kingdom was a reality to come.
“It is not only feasible, I think it’s going to happen,” he said.
The press conference was quickly followed by a statement from Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry, which said that the kingdom’s stance on Palestinian statehood was “firm and unwavering”.
“His Royal Highness emphasised that Saudi Arabia will continue its relentless efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that,” the statement read.
