Saudi Arabia’s enduring betrayal of Palestine
Summary: Ibn Saud consistently prioritised relations with Britain
and America over the Palestinian cause, influencing the end of the
Great Arab Revolt and limiting Saudi military action in 1948 in exchange
for financial aid. This long-standing betrayal of the Palestinian cause
continued through subsequent reigns, marked by secret contacts, support
for peace processes, and a shift away from using oil as a weapon,
culminating in recent overt cooperation against shared regional threats
like Iran.
In his memoirs, King Abdulaziz’s (Ibn Saud’s) close advisor, H St
John Philby, a key intermediary in Saudi-British relations post-World
War One, relates how for decades Ibn Saud prioritised his close ties
with Britain and America over the Palestinian cause. In 1919, after
Faisal bin Abdulaziz led a delegation
to Britain to congratulate King George V on Britain's victory in World
War I and its colonial endeavours in Arab countries, Phiby wrote
how Britain very nearly secured Arab connivance in its Palestine
policy. The only problem was that Faisal wanted to be the sole
beneficiary of the plan which his father would not accept.
In 1936, when Palestine was under British mandate, the Palestinians
engaged in a widespread 183-day general strike and revolt, commonly
known as the Great Arab Revolt.
Despite a massive military deployment and the use of brutal tactics
including torture and the use of human shields the British colonial
authorities failed to quell the uprising. Britain turned to Arab rulers
for assistance and in October 1936 Ibn Saud, King Ghazi of Iraq, King
Abdullah I of Transjordan, and Imam Yahya of Yemen issued a joint appeal
to Palestinian leadership urging them to end the revolt, writing
in Palestinian newspapers "We rely on the good intentions of our friend
Great Britain, who has declared that she will do justice." The move
caused deep internal divisions among the Palestinians and ended the
first phase of the Revolt. Many Palestinian leaders were subsequently
exiled, imprisoned, or killed by the British.
To end the Revolt completely, Ibn Saud then sent his sons Saud and
Faisal to meet with Palestinian leaders in Jerusalem to encourage them
to trust in British intentions to address Palestinian grievances,
particularly through the Peel Commission. Their assurances initiated a
series of concessions which significantly demoralised the Palestinian
struggle, paving the way for the formation of Israel.
In 1939, Faisal and Khalid (both later kings of Saudi Arabia)
participated in the St. James's Palace Conference as representatives of
the House of Saud to discuss the liquidation of the Palestinian cause.
The subsequent White Paper failed to end Jewish immigration and from the ashes of usurped Arab rights the outlines of the Zionist state began to emerge.
In 1947, Ibn Saud was facing a severe financial crisis due to
declining Hajj revenues, his lavish spending and chaotic rule. President
Truman secretly agreed to bail him out in exchange for Ibn Saud’s pledge
that Saudi Arabia would never participate in any wars waged by Arabs
against Israel to reclaim Palestine. As a result in 1948, in the face of
the Nakba, Saudi Arabia sent only a symbolic military force of around
1000 troops, indirectly serving the interests of the emerging Israeli
state.
After the Nakba, Saudi Arabia established a secret relationship with Israel. Researcher Alexander Bligh from the Truman Institute interviewed
former Israeli Ambassador to London Aharon Remez (1965-1970), who said
that "King Saud and King Faisal had a close relationship with Israel and
were in close contact with it."
In December 1966 King Faisal sent a secret letter
to President Lyndon B. Johnson which identified Egypt as the primary
adversary to both Saudi Arabia and the United States and urged the U.S.
to support Israel in a "swift surprise attack" to seize the Sinai
Peninsula. The letter recommended the immediate seizure of the Gaza
Strip (then under Egyptian control) and emphasised Jordanian control of
the West Bank to "diminish any Palestinian aspirations in moving towards
the liberation of Palestine" and "kill any hopes of a return for the
Palestinians abroad."
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