Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator
On April 17, the Defense Minister of Saudi Arabia, Prince Khalid Bin Salman al-Saud, met with the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, in Tehran. Prince Khalid is the son of King Salman, and brother of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
In March 2023, China brokered a restoration of the diplomatic relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and the relationship between the two powerful countries has continued to grow.
“It is much better for brothers in the region to cooperate and help each other rather than to rely on others,” Khamenei said after the meeting.
On July 23, 2024, the Beijing Declaration was signed with 14 Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Fatah. The agreement sought unity among the Palestinian political groups. The main point was to form an interim government of national reconciliation including the West Bank and Gaza.
Hamas, for the first time, agreed to the establishment of a Palestinian state according to UN resolutions. However, President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank has not moved to implement the declaration.
In the West Bank, armed Israeli settlers are allowed to attack, kill and destroy property of Palestinians who have lived there for thousands of years. Many of the illegal settlers are US citizens, and religious extremists.
The genocide in Gaza is ongoing and US President Trump offered a plan to take Gaza into US possession, drive out the Palestinians, like the US government drove out the Native Americans, and turn the strip into a “Riviera”. His arrogant plan may have been a negotiating tactic, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu endorsed it.
When Netanyahu came into office, he declared two main goals. Firstly, to increase the illegal settlements on the West Bank, and secondly, to sign a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia. The October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, and the ensuing attack on Gaza, halted the path towards normalization, as Saudi Arabia has been firm they will not sign until there is a two-state solution.
Many experts see the continuing Israeli attacks in the West Bank as a prelude to ethnic cleansing. Egypt, Jordan and Syria have been proposed to take in 5 million Palestinians, thus exterminating any two-state solution.
UNRWA has reported that since March 2, no aid has entered Gaza. The UN mission for refugees runs 115 shelters in Gaza holding 90,000 internally displaced persons. Gaza lacks food, clean water, sanitation, medicines and medical care. There is no security in Gaza, as the Israel carries out airstrikes and its ground forces attack families who have nowhere to hide.
Steven Sahiounie of MidEastDiscourse interviewed Professor Kamel Hawwash, a Palestinian writer and analyst in Birmingham, UK.
1. Steven Sahiounie (SS): US President Donald Trump announced his vision for the future of the Gaza Strip. What is your view on Trump’s plan?
Kamel Hawwash (KH): The so-called Trump plan is a commitment to ethnic cleansing through forced displacement of the people of the land, and is completely unacceptable. If he were really concerned for the Palestinians in Gaza, he would compel Israel to allow them into its lands, while reconstruction took place, and then they would return. However, he sees the land as a real estate deal for him and his friends. It will not end the Palestinian injustice and will not bring peace to the region.
2. SS: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is insisting on the two-State solution before signing a normalization agreement with Israel. In your opinion, will it happen?
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has remained firm in its strategy for peace. A Palestinian state must be created before it normalizes with Israel. This is in line with the Arab Peace Initiative, which the late King Abdullah proposed to the Arab League, and was accepted by all Arab Nations, but rejected by Israel. Israel will have seen that when the UAE normalized with Israel, it made the case that this would end annexation plans of the West Bank, but Israel is now implementing annexation. It will conclude that Israel cannot be trusted and any agreements must be watertight.
3. SS: The IDF has been attacking the West Bank for almost a year. Some experts feel that Israel wants to destroy the West Bank as they have destroyed Gaza. In your point of view, will the West Bank face the same fate as Gaza?
KH: Israel feels complete impunity to do as it wishes. In particular, the US will not challenge, end arms sales, or sanction it. The far right government wants to expel the Palestinians from the whole of historic Palestine and to do that it will make the West Bank unlivable as it has done in Gaza. It has focused its destructive efforts on refugee camps, which it sees, together with eliminating UNRWA, as ending the issue of the refugees.
4. SS: Many feel that Hamas is to blame for the death and destruction of Gaza and Lebanon. What is your take on these accusations?
KH: Gaza has been destroyed, and thousands have been slaughtered by Israel, not Hamas. Many Lebanese have been killed by Israel, not Hamas. Israel has breached International Law repeatedly. The time to review the actions of the resistance is at the end of the aggression, not now. Resistance groups are fully entitled to fight Israel in all the areas it occupies, in accordance with international law.
5. SS: Palestine is facing extinction. Hamas and Fatah have been fighting each other for years and this lack of Palestinian unity has contributed to this perilous situation. In your opinion, what will it take to save Palestine?
KH: The division between Fatah and Hamas has been destructive to the Palestinians and this must end. In the meantime, the Palestinians need to speak with one voice. The Palestinians were hopeful that this was to result from the ‘Beijing Agreement’ which was drawn by all the factions, but which the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas refuses to implement. Pressure from the Palestinian people needs to be heaped upon him to implement this and to end the division.
Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist
