Viral Saudi hashtag attacks Palestinians, accusing them of selling their country to Israel

The hashtag, which translates to “they sold their battle but they dare to swear at us” went viral on Saudi Twitter in a growing trend of social media campaigns targeting Palestinians. 

The accusation of Palestinians selling their land has for decades been used against them to justify mistreatment of Palestinian refugees and has since the creation of Israel been used by pro-Israel campaigners to claim Palestinians willingly gave up their land.

The hashtag has been used to claim that Saudi Arabia, which for years has been working on Arab normalisation with Israel, has done nothing but helped Palestinians – which was met with alleged ingratitude. 

“Saudi Arabia is the most generous country to the Palestinians, yet the Palestinians have unfortunately shut out the hand which helped them”, one Twitter user said.

“This is what happens when you offer a helping hand to traitors and people who sell their own cause”, another tweeted – adding a caricature of a Saudi hand shaking a Palestinian hand, and the Palestinian thumb biting the Saudi hand.

Anti-Semitic sentiments were also spewed in the hashtag. A caricature of Palestinians selling land to a Jewish man with Turkey being the broker was widely circulated in multiple tweets.

The top right-hand side of the caricature was captioned as "and the accused (of normalising with Israel) is Saudi Arabia".

The hashtag came about after a pro-Netanyahu Saudi journalist visited Israel, causing outrage among Palestinians.

Earlier this week, pro-Israel Saudi blogger and journalist Mohammed Saud, was one of six invitees from Arab states brought to Israel by its foreign ministry to give them fresh viewpoints on the country.

Before visiting Israel, his Twitter feed was famous for its pro-Israel output caught traction among Palestinians.

Observers see Saud's feed, along with the growing anti-Palestinian social media campaigns as the kingdom seeks to heading towards openly normalising relations with Israel.

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