Riyadh [Saudi Arabia]: Saudi Arabia has strongly condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s suggestion that Palestinian refugees could be relocated to Saudi land to establish a Palestinian state, Al Jazeera reported on Sunday.
In an official statement, the Saudi Foreign Ministry accused Netanyahu of attempting to “divert attention” from Israel’s ongoing actions in Gaza, which it described as “ethnic cleansing.”
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia appreciates the condemnation, disapproval, and total rejection announced by the brotherly countries towards what Benjamin Netanyahu stated regarding the displacement of the Palestinian people from their land, and the Kingdom values the positions that emphasize the centrality of the Palestinian issue to the Arab and Muslim countries,” the ministry said in a post on X.
The controversy erupted on Thursday when Netanyahu responded to an interviewer on an Israeli media channel who mistakenly referred to a “Saudi state” instead of a “Palestinian state,” Al Jazeera reported.
“The Saudis can create a Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia; they have a lot of land over there,” Netanyahu said, as quoted by Al Jazeera. The interviewer responded by saying it was an idea worth considering.
His remarks provoked backlash from multiple Arab nations, including Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Iraq, as well as the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
GCC Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi condemned Netanyahu’s statements, calling them “dangerous and irresponsible” and accusing Israel of disregarding international laws and the sovereignty of other states, Al Jazeera reported.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry also expressed gratitude to “brotherly countries” that denounced Netanyahu’s remarks.
Meanwhile, global leaders have also criticized former U.S. President Donald Trump for suggesting that Washington should “take over” Gaza. Trump has previously claimed that Saudi Arabia would not insist on the formation of a Palestinian state as a condition for normalizing ties with Israel—a claim that Riyadh has repeatedly denied, according to Al Jazeera.
The Israel-Palestine conflict has resulted in the deaths of at least 61,700 Palestinians, including around 18,000 children, while thousands remain missing. The ongoing violence has devastated much of the region’s infrastructure, as reported by Al Jazeera.