Saudi Arabia will never falter on Palestine

On the issue of Palestine, the position of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has always been firm toward the necessity of the Palestinian people obtaining their legitimate rights.

Recently, the Kingdom informed the US administration that it will not have diplomatic relations with Israel unless an independent Palestinian state is recognized on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as capital and unless Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip is stopped and all members of the Israeli occupation forces withdrawn.

Throughout the years and all the different crises, Saudi Arabia has never abandoned this firm position on the Palestinian issue, no matter international pressures or positions exercised by countries with interests in bending or dissolving the Kingdom’s position.

Here, some of the Kingdom’s positions toward Palestine as a matter of inference are worth mentioning.

Back in 1935, the Kingdom stood at the London conference known as the Round Table Conference to discuss the Palestinian issue in support of the Palestinian people. In 1943, Saudi Arabia established a general consulate in the city of Jerusalem, Palestine, to facilitate communications with the people.

King Salman affirmed that the grave events the region is going through must not distract from the affirmation to the entire world regarding the centrality of the Palestinian issue.

Dr. Jamal Al-Harbi

And in 1945, King Salman Abdulaziz sent a letter to US President Roosevelt explaining the Palestinian issue. This letter contributed to changing the position of the Roosevelt administration, and his promise not to recognize the State of Israel. The letter is considered one of the strongest messages in history regarding the defense of Palestinian rights. 

Saudi support continued uninterrupted. In June 1967, the popular donation campaign in the Kingdom was able to collect an amount of more than 16 million riyals. In December 1968, a legal edict was issued permitting the payment of zakat (obligatory Islamic donations) to popular committees to help the Palestinian people. In 1969, King Salman directed support for two initiatives. The first, he called upon all citizens of Saudi Arabia to subscribe 1 percent of their salaries for Palestine, and the second: a “record of honor” through which individuals, merchants, companies and institutions committed to making regular donations to the account of the committee. 

In 1988, the proceeds of the first popular donation campaign to support the Palestinian people amounted to more than 160 million riyals. 

In 1989, King Salman — the Emir of Riyadh at the time — opened the Palestinian embassy building in Riyadh and raised the Palestinian flag there. At that time, President Yasser Arafat awarded him the Order of the Star of Jerusalem in appreciation of his exceptional efforts in supporting the Palestinian people. 

Support from King Salman continued and never stopped. In 2017, during the Arab Summit, he affirmed that the grave events the region was going through must not distract from the affirmation to the entire world regarding the centrality of the Palestinian issue. In the emergency Arab Summit conference in Makkah in 2019, he stressed: “The Palestinian issue remains our first issue until the Palestinian people obtain their stolen rights and establish their independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital.” 

This is the Kingdom’s steadfastness in its position toward the Palestinian issue and the great effort it is making to stand with the Palestinian people against Israeli aggression since the Kingdom’s early stages.

Now, as the crisis rages on, the Kingdom will again spare no effort regarding its honest, brotherly and responsible positions toward the Palestinian issue going forward.

- Dr. Jamal Alharbi is a writer on international affairs and media advisor at the Saudi Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan.