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RIYADH: From cleaning up hateful school textbooks to a taboo-defying religious sermon, Saudi Arabia is pushing for another kind of normalization after refusing to establish formal relations with Israel: coexistence with Jews.
Saudi Arabia has said it will not follow its allies Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates in establishing diplomatic relations without a resolution to the Palestinian problem, even as it cultivates clandestine ties with the Jewish state.
Having Saudi Arabia, an Arab powerhouse and the epicenter of Islam, forge a similar deal would be the ultimate diplomatic prize for Israel, but the kingdom fears that its citizens, who are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, are not ready for a full embrace.
Saudi Arabia, however, is pushing to change public perceptions of Jews with a risky reach to a community that has long been vilified by the kingdom’s clerical system and media, laying the groundwork for eventual recognition.
School textbooks, once known for denigrating Jews and other non-Muslims as “pigs” and “apes,” are being revised as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s campaign to combat extremism in education. say authorities.
“The Saudi government has also decided to ban the disparagement of Jews and Christians in mosques,” said Saudi analyst Najah al-Otaibi.
“Anti-Jewish rhetoric was common in the imams’ Friday prayers in mosques that were used to address Muslims around the world.”
In a surprising U-turn, a preacher in the holy city of Mecca unleashed a social media storm this month when he spoke of the prophet Muhammad’s friendly relations with Jews to uphold religious tolerance.
The sermon was by Abdulrahman al-Sudais, the imam of the Great Mosque of Mecca who in the past has sparked controversy over strongly anti-Semitic views.
‘When not yes’
Mohammed al-Issa, a Saudi cleric who heads the Muslim World League, earned Israel’s praise in January after traveling to Poland for the events that marked 75 years since the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz.
Earlier this year, the kingdom announced the screening of a Holocaust-themed film for the first time at a film festival, before it was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The kingdom has also made a bold approach to Jewish figures, including in February, when King Salman welcomed a Jerusalem-based rabbi, David Rosen, for the first time in modern history.
“When it comes to Saudi Arabia and Israel forging relations, it is a question of ‘when’, not ‘if’,” said Marc Schneier, an American rabbi with close ties to the Gulf rulers.
“Part of the process that all the Gulf countries have gone through and are going through on the road to normalization is to first push for warmer ties between Muslims and Jews and then move more boldly to discuss Israel and the Gulf.”
Arab News, the kingdom’s leading English-language daily, caused a social media storm over the weekend when it briefly changed its social media banner on Twitter and Facebook with a Hebrew greeting for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
The newspaper recently published an extensive series on the Jews of Lebanon and plans a similar installment on an ancient Jewish community that lived in what is now Saudi Arabia.
The newspaper’s editor, Faisal Abbas, told AFP that the coverage “was not linked to Israel” but was aimed at connecting with “Arab Jews around the world.”
‘Difficult for it to happen’
The coverage marks a change for the strictly controlled media in the absolute monarchy.
Saudi media have previously branded the Jewish state the “Zionist” enemy, but highly praised the agreements recently reached with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Fueling speculation about the quiet warming of relations with Israel were two television dramas on the Saudi-controlled MBC network during the fasting month of Ramadan this year.
In a controversial scene on one of the shows, “Exit 7”, a Saudi character casts aside the taboo of doing business with Israel, saying that the Palestinians are the real “enemy” for insulting the kingdom “day and night” at despite decades of support.
The moves indicate that the kingdom is not opposed to normalization with the Jewish state after having resolutely supported the Palestinians politically and financially for decades, observers say.
But Israel formalizing relations with unelected Arab governments “is not the same as Israel making ‘peace’ with the Arab people,” said Giorgio Cafiero, executive director of Gulf State Analytics.
Data from a rare Saudi public opinion poll released last month by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy suggests that many Saudi citizens are not in favor of a deal.
Despite the Saudi media’s outreach to Israelis and Jews, “only 9% of Saudis” agreed that people in favor of business or sporting contacts with Israelis should be able to do so, according to David Pollock of the Institute.
“What peace? Peace after all that (Israel) has done, carnage and war? “Bader, a young Saudi citizen in Riyadh, told AFP.
“It is difficult for this to happen between (Saudis and Israelis). I will not support it. “
