By Palestine Chronicle Staff
Dozens of Saudis took to twitter to protest the recent visit of a Saudi delegation headed by retired General, Anwar Ashqi, to Israel last week. This report highlights some of these tweets which express the voices of Saudi and Arab citizens:
Adel Alkalbani: ‘When we were young, they used to call it the Zionist enemy, 60 years on, the enemy did not change, we did!’
#سعوديون_ضد_التطبيع
حين كنا صغارا كانوا يسمونه
( العدو الصهيوني )
خلال ٦٠ عاما
لم يتغير العدو
نحن تغيرنا!— عادل الكلباني (@abuabdelelah) July 30, 2016
Referring to Ashqi, Mohammed Alsharief said, “Never liked this guy and never will, obviously he is overstepping his boundaries!”
https://twitter.com/m_alsharief/status/759510474731974656
Another social media activist with the name ‘speechless’ tweeted:
‘I totally disagree with any form of peace agreement with Israel’
#سعوديون_ضد_التطبيع me as one of opponents I totally disagree with any form of peace agreement with Israel
— speechless (@Samlife_) July 30, 2016
Abu Fahd tweeted: ‘We will not betray our Muslim and Arab nation by normalizing relations with Zionist entity which occupies the lands of our Arab brothers in Palestine.’
#سعوديون_ضد_التطبيع لن نخون امتنا العربيه والاسلاميه بالتطبيع مع الكيان الصهيوني المحتل لارض اخوننا العرب بفلسطين ?? pic.twitter.com/qBklotupTs
— ˓❁⸀ ابوفهد (@hlal1636) July 29, 2016
Fatimah said: ‘We always stand firmly against normalization by those who betrayed us and normalizing relations with the Zionist entity will never be acceptable.’
دائما وابدا نقف ضد تطبيع الخونة ونرفضه لن يكون التطبيع مع الكيان الصهيوني امرا مقبولا في يوما من الايام.. انه المبدأ #سعوديون_ضد_التطبيع
— فاطمة. (@_fa6ima1) July 28, 2016
Nader Alrouqi noted that the reason behind this campaign on twitter was ‘to get our voice heard and to send a message to the group that visited Israel.’
الغرض من الحملة هو انه يوصل صوتنا لأكبر عدد ممكن ولتسجيل موقف ضد المجموعة اللي زارت اسرائيل مؤخراً #سعوديون_ضد_التطبيع
— نادر الروقي (@9nad9) July 28, 2016
Some Gulf countries have diplomatic relations with Israel which they deliberately keep secret fearing a backlash from the public.
The recent Saudi delegation’s visit to Israel is the first of its kind to be made public with complete silence from the government of Saudi Arabia.
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has rejected the visit and called on Saudis and all Arabs to stop all forms of normalization with Israel.
(Palestine Chronicle)