SAUDI ARABIA ARRESTS CITIZENS FOR THEIR “INCENDIARY” VIEWS ON ISRAEL-GAZA CONFLICT

Thu 02 May 2024:

Saudi Arabia is taking harsh measures against its people who criticize Israel’s continuing war on Gaza online, according to reports.

The claims in a Bloomberg report on Wednesday come as US officials suggested talks are underway for a Saudi-Israel normalisation deal.

According to the article, which cites anonymous diplomatic sources, the detentions include an official from a company participating in Vision 2030, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s centerpiece economic project.

Sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that the person was arrested in connection with expressing “incendiary” views on the current Israel-Gaza conflict.

A second detainee is a media personality who Bloomberg reports had said that “Israel should never be forgiven”, and another is someone who called for a boycott of US fast food restaurants in the kingdom.

There are no official records of how many people have been arrested since 7 October 2023 for voicing concerns about Israel’s actions in Gaza.

This crackdown coincides with ongoing efforts by the United States to facilitate the normalisation of ties between Riyadh and Israel.

During a recent visit to the Gulf state, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken remarked that intensive negotiations over the past week have brought the parties “potentially very close to completion.” Meanwhile Saudi Arabia has repeatedly announced that it will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel until an independent Palestinian state is established.

Israel has waged a genocidal offensive against Palestinians in Gaza since 7 October, killing more than 34,500 men, women and children, and wounding over 77,000 others, reported Wafa news agency.

The Israeli offensive has left 85 per cent of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60 per cent of the enclave’s civilian infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). An interim ruling by the World Court in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza. South Africa, which took the apartheid state to the ICJ, has since warned that Israel is ignoring the court’s ruling. Israel denies all charges against it.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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