Saudi Arabia denies access to its Al Arabiya news site

Saudi Arabia's state-owned international news channel Al Arabiya has denied me access to its website - apparently for the sin of writing extensively and positively about the Saudi-based Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution (HKOPS) - published in Al Arabiya on 8 June 2022.

My first article endorsing HKOPS was published on 29 June 2022 – subsequently followed by another 77 articles calling for negotiations to implement HKOPS to end the 100-years old unresolved conflict between Arabs and Jews over former Palestine.

My enthusiasm for HKOPS has not been shared by the international media, the international think tanks, the United Nations or European Union – which have not said one word about HKOPS since its first publication.

Algeria suspended Al Arabiya's operating license in October 2024 allegedly after accusations of bias in reporting the wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

Algeria's move against Al Arabiya came just one day after Iraq's Communications and Media Commission revoked the license and closed the office of Saudi media conglomerate MBC Group - the parent company of Al Arabiya. That decision came after MBC aired a report calling out as terrorists: recently slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qasem Soleimani. The report has since been removed from all MBC platforms.

Denying me access to Al Arabiya came without any warning other than this notification when I recently attempted to access the site:

HKOPS author - Ali Shihabi – is an advisor to Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS).

HKOPS calls for the merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) into one new territorial entity to be governed by the existing Hashemite ruling regime in Jordan – not the PLO or Hamas.

I contacted Shihabi who confirmed to me the features of his proposed solution in my article published on 22 August 2022:

• It would supersede two previous Saudi peace proposals in 1981 and 2002 calling for Israel to withdraw completely from the West Bank
• The two-state solution - the creation of a separate Palestinian Arab State between Jordan and Israel promoted unsuccessfully by the United Nations for the last 29 years - was consigned to the diplomatic graveyard
• Amman, not Jerusalem, would be the capital of The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine
• The right of return to Israel was abandoned.
• Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and stateless refugees would get full citizenship in the merged Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine with all the elements of sovereignty applicable to those Territories that belonging to a fully recognized state in the UN entail.