Netanyahu panned for saying Palestinians could have state in Saudi territory
‘They have a lot of land,’ PM tells right-wing Channel 14; Riyadh decries Israel’s ‘extremist, occupying mentality’; Arab League says remarks are a ‘complete detachment from reality’
Since Saudi Arabia is demanding the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of any eventual Israel-Saudi normalization deal, the kingdom could create one on its own territory, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview, drawing condemnations from the Arab world.
During a conversation on Thursday with the right-wing Channel 14 TV network about Riyadh’s preconditions for normalization, anchor Yaakov Bardugo mistakenly referred to a “Palestinian state” as a “Saudi state.”
Netanyahu was quick to correct him, but quipped back that “the Saudis can create a Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia; they have a lot of land over there.”
Bardugo responded that it was an interesting idea that shouldn’t be “ruled out,” and Netanyahu repeated himself, saying Saudi Arabia does have “a lot of territory.”
Netanyahu added that during the Abraham Accords negotiations that led to normalization deals with other Arab states, there were plenty of demands that had to be overcome, but eventually the deals were signed.
The premier said that the talks “were conducted in secret for three years,” and that “the other side issued messages of mountains and hills” in the way of an agreement, but in the end, the talks were successful.
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that it categorically rejects any remarks about displacing Palestinians from Gaza.
The Saudi statement did not, however, directly refer to the prime minister’s comments about establishing a Palestinian state in Saudi territory.
#Statement | 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… pic.twitter.com/ebj2sVHx4w
— Foreign Ministry ???????? (@KSAmofaEN) February 9, 2025
Israel’s “extremist, occupying mentality does not comprehend what the Palestinian land means to the brotherly people of Palestine and their emotional, historical and legal connection to this land,” it said.
The Arab League criticized the comments, saying the prime minister’s remarks represent “a complete detachment from reality.”
“The logic behind them is unacceptable and reflects a complete detachment from reality,” the regional bloc’s chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in a statement, adding that ideas like the one aired by Netanyahu during a recent media interview “are nothing more than mere fantasies or illusions.”
Egypt and Jordan did directly condemn Netanyahu’s suggestion of a Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia, with Cairo describing the idea as a “direct infringement of Saudi sovereignty.” Qatar condemned the comments as “provocative.”
Saudi Arabia said it valued the Arab states’ rejection of Netanyahu’s remarks.
Discussions of the fate of Palestinians in Gaza have been upended by Tuesday’s shock suggestion from President Donald Trump that the US would “take over the Gaza Strip” from Israel and create a “Riviera of the Middle East” after resettling Palestinians elsewhere.
Arab states roundly condemned Trump’s comments, which came during a fragile ceasefire in the Gaza war that Israel has been waging against the terror group Hamas, which controls the narrow Strip.
Trump also said Saudi Arabia was not demanding a Palestinian state as a condition for normalizing ties with Israel. But Riyadh rebuffed his statement, saying it had conveyed its position against normalizing ties with Israel before a Palestinian state is established “to the previous US administration and the current administration.”
Non-Saudi officials and analysts alike, though, have long dismissed such statements from the kingdom, insisting that Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman is far more flexible on the issue in private and is only seeking the establishment of a “pathway” to Palestinian statehood before normalizing ties with Israel.
Still, those same officials and analysts acknowledge that Saudi Arabia has been seeking a much more irreversible pathway amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, which has catapulted the Palestinian issue to the top of the international agenda.
Saudi Arabia does not recognize Israel, but since 2020 has been negotiating rapprochement in exchange for a US defense pact and Washington’s help on a civilian nuclear program.
Those talks were derailed by the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war, with Riyadh shelving the matter amid Arab anger over Israel’s subsequent military offensive in the enclave.
