Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has reportedly given 1,000 Palestinian relatives of terrorists a free trip to participate in the Mecca pilgrimage, raising eyebrows as the kingdom considers peace with Israel.
The news was reported by official Palestinian Authority media, and relayed via Palestinian Media Watch:
There has long been speculation about Saudi Arabia normalizing its relations with Israel, as part of US President Donald Trump’s “Abraham Accords.” However, a new reward by the Saudi king to “honor” Palestinian terrorists’ families shows that the Saudi leadership does not reject Palestinian terror, nor those terrorists who murdered Israeli civilians.
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas himself “thanked Saudi Arabia and its leadership for the generous grant they provided this year to 1,000 Palestinian pilgrims from among the families of the Martyrs, the prisoners, and the wounded” [Official PA TV News, June 9, 2025]. The relatives of “Martyrs, prisoners, and wounded” – meaning dead, imprisoned, and wounded terrorists – were flown to Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage by Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
This gesture constitutes a sign of “loyalty” to the terrorists, and a commitment to “constant sponsorship and honoring” vis-a-vis their families, as noted by official PA TV.
The issue of subsidies to the families of Palestinian terrorists has been a major problem in U.S.-Palestinian relations. Saudi Arabia is reportedly considering normalizing relations with Israel as part of a peace deal.
Salman is thought to be more reluctant to achieve peace with Israel than his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS, who is pushing for reforms and increased openness to Israel and the west in general.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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