In a Feb. 3 open letter as an op-ed for the U.A.E. news site The National, former director of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence agency and former Saudi Ambassador to Washington, His Royal Highness Prince Turki Al Faisal responded to President Trump’s recent statements about the relocation of Gazans from their land. Titled, “Mr. Trump, It’s Time For America To Recognize Palestine,” Prince Turki wrote, “The Palestinian people are not illegal immigrants to be deported to other lands.”
The people of Gaza are refugees from Israel’s earlier wars in 1948 and 1967, Prince Turki, a member of the royal family wrote, and if they are to go anywhere, “they should be allowed to return to their homes and to their orange and olive groves in Haifa, Jaffa and other towns and villages from which they fled or were forcibly driven out by the Israelis.”
Prince Turki goes on: “Mr President, your declared intent to bring peace to Palestine is much lauded in our part of the world. I respectfully suggest that the way to do that is to give the Palestinians their inalienable right to self-determination and a state with its capital in East Jerusalem, as envisaged in UN General Assembly Resolutions 181 and 194 and Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, and the Arab Peace Initiative.
