Saudi Arabia is the first supporter of Palestine … Positions and numbers tell

By: Mohammed Hassan Mohammed Al-Naimi

Within the sphere of individuals less informed about social media, the use of budget-oriented communication platforms can lead to the distortion of historical facts. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s stance on the issue of Palestine remains a foundational pillar of its policy since its inception under King Abdulaziz, who was an early and unwavering advocate for the Palestinian people. This principled and honourable position regarding the Palestinian question has persisted through the reign of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman Bin Abdulaziz, and the leadership of Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman.

The Kingdom made a generous contribution to the Arab summit in Khartoum in 1967. At the 1978 Baghdad summit, the Kingdom committed to providing annual financial support to the Palestinians for 97 million dollars. For ten years (1979-1989), at the 1987 Algiers emergency summit, the Kingdom allocated monthly support to the Palestinian uprising for $6 million. In the first intifada in 1987, the Kingdom made a cash contribution to the Palestinian intifada Fund for $143 million. It provided the International Red Cross $2 million to purchase medicines, medical equipment and food for the Palestinians.

The Kingdom has increased its contribution to support the budget of the Palestinian Authority. The Kingdom has increased its monthly contributions to keep the budget of the Authority from $7.7 million to $20 million in response to the decision of the Arab Summit held in the Dead Sea in Jordan in 2017 and an increase of $500 million in the capital of the Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem Funds. The Kingdom has contributed $50 million to support the Islamic Waqf in Jerusalem and $50 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine to support Jerusalem and the Palestinian cause. The Kingdom’s assistance to Palestine from 2000-2019 amounted to $7 billion.

Two billion Saudi Arabian rials, the income of the People ' s Committee from the Saudi people (after the June 967 war), one billion ninety-seven million dollars in public support (the second uprising in 2000), a sum of $6 million in monthly support for the uprising (the 1987 Algiers emergency summit), two hundred and forty million rials in popular support (the second uprising in 2000), and a sum of $143 million in cash contribution to the Palestinian Intifada Fund in 1987, one hundred and eighteen million rials in popular support for the first intifada in 1987 and three hundred million dollars in funding for a development programme through the Saudi Fund for Development (the conference of donor countries during the years (1994-1995-1997-1999), in addition to customs exemptions for Palestinian goods and products and the grant of $1 billion to the Kingdom for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip (Kuwait Economic Conference in 2009), financed the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip in the amount of $500 million after the Israeli war in 2014.

The Kingdom has fully paid its assessed contributions in accordance with the Beirut Summit 2002 to support the budget of the Palestinian Authority. The Summit reaffirmed the Arab commitment to that support. It has transferred a total commitment of $184.8 million from 2002 to 2004. It has also fulfilled all its commitments by the Tunis Summit 2004 regarding the continuation of financial support for the budget of the Palestinian Authority for six months from April to the end of September 2004. It has transferred the total amount of $46.2 million.

At the Arab Summit in Cairo in 2000, the Kingdom took the initiative of proposing the establishment of two funds on behalf of the Al-Aqsa Fund and the Al-Quds Intifada Fund with a capital of $1 billion. The Government of the Kingdom has also given humanitarian assistance to Palestine refugees directly or through international agencies and organisations dealing with refugee affairs, such as UNRWA, UNESCO, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, the World Bank and the Islamic Bank. The Kingdom has also regularly paid its assessed share to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) of its annual contribution of $200,000 to the Agency’s budget. It has made extraordinary contributions of some $60,000 to cover its budget deficit and to implement its programmes for Palestinians during the visit of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to Saudi Arabia in October 2019.

The history of Saudi Arabia’s achievements has been marked by the monitoring of the flow of gold and the desire to document a golden page in that historical record and the Kingdom’s political and material support for the Palestinian Authority and people since the beginning of the Palestinian question.

1. The historic and famous gathering of American President Roosevelt and King Abdulaziz in 1945 put forward the Kingdom’s view, recorded by books and letters, that the Palestinian cause would remain the first consistent issue in the Kingdom’s policies over the years.
2. King Saud bin Abdulaziz — Tayybullah Tharah — formed grass-roots committees to assist the Palestinians and the families of Palestinian martyrs following the June 1967 setback and entrusted her presidency to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz as Amir of the Riyadh region.

3-At the Second Arab Summit, held in Alexandria in 1964, King Al Faisal affirmed the imperative of showing the Palestinian presence and extending it by all means of continuity. He gave £5 million as a gift from him. He also stopped oil from the West in the October war.

4-King Khalid-Rahmallah ordered, when Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, that Palestinian fighters be supplied with arms and ammunition from National Guard and army warehouses and that $5 million be paid from his account to Yasser Arafat when he came to seek further support.

5-King Fahd-Rahmallah put forward the peace project in 1982, and I consider it the first project for an integrated and balanced solution to the issue.

1. The Road Map and the Arab Peace Initiative, proposed by King Abdullah and adopted by the Arab States as a unified Arab project at the Beirut Summit in 2002, to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict.

7-King Salman’s initiative to designate the 29th Arab Summit, held in Dhahran, “Al-Quds Summit,” in 2018, as the title of solidarity and victory for Palestine and its people.

8-On 9 October 2023, Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, affirmed his country’s stand with the Palestinian people to achieve their legitimate rights to a decent life, to realise their hopes and aspirations, and to achieve a just and lasting peace. This was done through telephone calls with King Abdullah II of Jordan, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, which examined the situation of military escalation in and around Gaza and exacerbated the situation, threatening the lives of civilians and the security and stability of the region.