Advertising
Supported by
The belated campaign, announced more than three weeks after the start of the war, seems consistent with the Saudi government’s ambivalent reaction to the conflict.
By Vivian Neréim
Reporting from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia on Thursday announced a government crusade to gather humanitarian aid for Gaza, raising more than 60,000 donations and more than $17 million in the first few hours.
The campaign was announced more than three weeks after the start of the war between Hamas and Israel, which cut off electricity, water and food to more than two million Palestinians living in Gaza. This effort was introduced particularly later than past Saudi aid campaigns. it was introduced days after regional crises, such as February’s earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, a delay that seemed consistent with the Saudi government’s ambivalent reaction to the conflict.
On the one hand, Saudi officials issued a series of statements condemning the Israeli bombing of Gaza and urgently calling for a ceasefire and the creation of a Palestinian state. King Salman kicked off the state aid crusade on Thursday with a donation of $8 million, while his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, donated around $5. 3 million, the kingdom announced.
At the same time, many Saudis say they have picked up signs that public displays of pro-Palestinian sentiment are not entirely welcome in their authoritarian rule, especially since the Biden administration revealed this year that it was discussing an imaginable deal with Saudi leaders. that the kingdom would identify diplomatic relations with Israel.
This week, a British actor wearing a keffiyeh (a checkered scarf widely regarded as a symbol of Palestinian nationalism) while visiting the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia said briefly that the government detained him, interrogated him and confiscated the headscarf. He did not respond to a request for comment on the episode.
The kingdom has not officially designated Hamas, the armed organization that regulates Gaza and carried out the October 7 attacks in Israel, as a terrorist organization. But in 2019, the Saudi government arrested and prosecuted several Palestinian citizens of the kingdom who had ties to Hamas. according to human rights organizations. The Saudi government appears to be implicitly classifying Hamas as a terrorist organization through a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, which they designated as a terrorist organization in 2014.
Because the government maintains tight controls on charitable donations (primarily set up for anti-terrorism reasons), the initial lack of a state-led crusade meant that some Saudis struggled to send aid to Gazans, despite a groundswell of popular support for them in recent years. Kingdom.
That sentiment was on full display Thursday when the Saudi aid crusade, organized through the government’s King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, raised tens of thousands of donations in a matter of hours. The center’s director, Abdulaziz Al Rabea, said the crusade was a reflection of the kingdom’s “historical role alongside the brotherly Palestinian people in various crises,” according to a report published by the official Saudi news agency.
When asked about the timing of the aid campaign, a spokesperson for the center said the kingdom “has been at the forefront of offering aid to the Palestinian people” and that the organization has a long history of supporting Palestinians. through “numerous projects”, especially in partnership with the United Nations. Nations.
By contrast, the neighboring United Arab Emirates introduced its own humanitarian aid crusade in Gaza on October 13, days after Israel began its siege of the enclave in reaction to Hamas attacks. Thousands of volunteers amassed aid packages for Gazans, a notable display in a country where public expressions of solidarity with Palestinians have been stifled since the authoritarian government established ties with Israel in 2020.
On Wednesday, Emirati leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan ordered the government to establish medical treatment in Emirati hospitals for 1,000 young Palestinians in Gaza, according to a statement from the official news agency. Almost no Palestinians have been able to leave the blockaded territory since then. at the start of the war, and he gave no details about how the children and their families would be brought there from Gaza. He only states that the UAE “will provide them with medical treatment before they return home safely. “
Ahmed Al Omran contributed to this report from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Vivian Nereim is the head of the Gulf Bureau. She has more than a decade of experience in the Arabian Peninsula and was previously a Bloomberg News reporter covering Saudi Arabia. Find out more about Vivian Néréim
Advertising