Palestinians Should ‘Shut Up’ Or Make Peace, Saudi Prince Told Jewish Groups
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman holds a meeting with members of the British government. Image by Dan Kitwood – WPA Pool/Getty Images
By Aiden Pink April 29, 2018
The crown prince of Saudi Arabia reportedly harshly criticized Palestinian leadership during a meeting with American Jewish organizations in New York last month, slamming Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for rejecting peace offers.
“In the last several decades the Palestinian leadership has missed one opportunity after the other and rejected all the peace proposals it was given,” Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman told the Jewish organizations, Barak Ravid of Israel’s Channel 10 reported Sunday for Axios. “It is about time the Palestinians take the proposals and agree to come to the negotiations table or shut up and stop complaining.”
“People literally fell off their chairs,” said a source who was briefed on the meeting.
The prince, known as MBS, also reportedly said that the Palestinian issue was not a priority for the Saudi government, which “has much more urgent and important issues to deal with” like Iran.
But MBS also reportedly said that Israel and the Palestinians would have to make progress in peace negotiations before Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries could normalize relations with the Jewish state.
Among the groups present at the March 27th meeting were AIPAC, the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Federations of North America, B’nai B’rith, and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, The Jerusalem Post reported.
Saudi Arabia and Israel have grown increasingly close in the past few years, as both governments are concerned about the threat of Iran and its allies in the region.
During his American tour, MBS told “60 Minutes” that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was “very much like Hitler.” He also told The Atlantic that Israelis “have the right to their own land.”
Contact Aiden Pink at pink@forward.com or on Twitter, @aidenpink
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