Hamas slams Netanyahu's normalization attempts with Saudi Arabia as ‘mirage’

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has denounced as a “mirage” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent comments about the possibility of a normalization agreement between the occupying regime and Saudi Arabia.

Jihad Taha, a spokesman of the Gaza-based resistance movement, made the statement on Tuesday after the Israeli premier expressed optimism about deepening ties between Tel Aviv and Riyadh.

Netanyahu called a possible deal with the Saudi kingdom an “exceptional thing” and a “pivot” in history.

“The peace talks or normalization with the occupation is just a mirage and a deception in order to allow time for the entity to nibble and steal more of our occupied lands for the benefit of settlement projects,” Taha said.

The Hamas spokesman underlined that Netanyahu's recent statement, in which he reiterated that he would not allow the establishment of a Palestinian state, “proves once again the aggressive intentions and systematic fascist behavior of this criminal entity against our Palestinian people and their national rights.”

Taha said the best response to such fascist statements is to stand by Palestinian people and provide all forms of support to them in their struggle and resistance against the occupying regime.

The Hamas official also called for “effective steps” to boycott the Tel Aviv regime and prosecute its leaders in international forums for their crimes and systematic violations against Palestinian land, people and sanctities.

Saudi Arabia did not show any opposition when the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco in 2020 became the first Arab countries in decades to normalize relations with Israel in a deal brokered by former US President Donald Trump.

The oil-rich kingdom is yet to jump on the bandwagon, but the two sides have seen growing contacts and de-facto rapprochement in recent years, despite claims that it is committed to the 2002 so-called Arab Peace Initiative, which conditions normalizing ties with Israel on the establishment of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.

Riyadh granted permission for Israeli airlines to use its airspace in November 2020, hours before the first Israeli flight to the UAE was set to take off.

Palestinian leaders, activists and ordinary people have repeatedly rejected Arab-Israeli normalization deals as “a stab in the back of the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people.”

ME