Saudi Regime Bans Millions of Palestinians from Mecca
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
The Saudi regime is contemptuous of Shia Muslims domestically and abroad.
It’s also hostile to Palestinians – even though they’re mostly Sunnis, including most Israeli Arab citizens.
Muslims everywhere are encouraged to perform the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime for individuals able to afford it.
They’re US war OF terror scapegoats – notably vilified post-9/11 in targeted countries – dehumanized, spied on and framed at home, treated harshly as political prisoners when falsely charged and given long unjust sentences.
It’s the wrong time to be Muslim in America and in countries Washington attacks – always the wrong time to be Palestinians, longstanding victims of Israeli apartheid state terror.
The despotic Saudi regime finds new ways to inflict wounds, a ruthless family masquerading as a nation.
It barred millions of Palestinians from making the Haj pilgrimage to Mecca at a designated time each year or Umrah pilgrimage any time.
The ban affects over 1.3 million Israeli Arab Muslim citizens, the kingdom no longer accepting temporary Jordanian, Lebanese, or Occupied East Jerusalem passports.
Last September, Riyadh stopped issuing visas for Palestinians in Jordan, Lebanon, East Jerusalem and Israel. The move affects nearly three million Palestinians, denying them the right to worship in Mecca.
East Jerusalemite Muslims were told they could apply for a temporary passport from the PA to get a Saudi visa. This way affects their legal status as East Jerusalem residents.
It would give Israel a backdoor way to revoke it, what it’s been doing incrementally for years, wanting the entire city to be exclusively Jewish, Palestinians denied any portion of it as their capital.
The Saudi move is all about conspiring with Washington and Israel. Trump and Netanyahu regime hardliners want the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) eliminated, along with erasing the status of millions of Palestinian refugees.
Netanyahu disgracefully accused the agency of “incitement against Israel” – the same blame game his regime uses against anyone criticizing Israeli ruthlessness.
He and Trump regime hardliners want vital humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees ended, along with denying all Palestinians their fundamental rights.
They want Palestinians’ refugee status and diaspora Palestinians’ right of return off the table in future no-peace/peace talks.
Congressional legislation is addressing the issue of denying Palestinians their most important fundamental rights in any future talks.
That’s what Ziofascist ruthlessness is all about – the Saudis in cahoots with Washington and Israel.
They want millions of Palestinians thrown under the bus, including by ending their refugee status, at the same time denying them the right of all Muslims to worship in Mecca.
The Trump, Netanyahu and Saudi regimes want Palestinians naturalized as citizens of countries where they’re located – ending their status as refugees and international law guaranteed right of return.
My newest book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
