Fatah, the main component of the PLO, rejects the Saudi initiative, see the
article below from Arabic News, February 23, 2002.
The PLO need not worry, however. In January 1995, the mufti of Saudi
Arabia, Sheikh Abdel Aziz Bin-Baz, ruled that Islamic law does not rule out
peace with Israel – “on condition that it is a temporary peace, until the Moslems
build up the strength needed to expel the Jews.”
The central committee of the Palestinian national liberation movement Fatah has
warned against the grave consequences implied in the initiative of the Saudi
crown prince Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz concerning finding a settlement for the
Arab- Israeli conflict.
In a statement, the movement said that this initiative and other settlement
initiatives with Israel are but a new stab against the struggle of the Palestinian
people and their uprising and legitimate rights.
The statements stressed that nobody have the right to bargain and give up the
lands and the rights. It questioned saying: “Did Saudi Arabia give up its
demands to border areas under disputes with brotherly Arab states, so as it
permits itself to propose initiatives that give up the territories occupied since
1948 and serve Zionist and American schemes and conspiracies at a time when
Palestinian Intifada and resistance are increasing and the ‘enemy’ suffers a deep
strategic crisis.”
The statement indicated that the Saudi initiative drops and ignores the right of
return for more than five million Palestinian refugees who were expelled from
their territories. It called not to divert the risks of the American campaigns
against certain Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, at the expense of the
Palestinian people and their legitimate rights.
