By Hakan Copur

WASHINGTON

Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman defended the right of both Palestinians and Israelis to a homeland in an interview Monday with U.S.-based magazine The Atlantic.

Speaking to editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, Salman said everyone has the right to live in a peaceful nation.

“I believe the Palestinians and the Israelis have the right to have their own land,” Salman said, adding “but we have to have a peace agreement to assure the stability for everyone and to have normal relations”.

Asked whether his country has a problem with anti-Semitism, Salman denied it, citing the large number of Jews in Saudi Arabia from the U.S. and Europe.

“Our country doesn’t have a problem with Jews. Our Prophet Muhammad married a Jewish woman. Not just a friend—he married her,” he said.

“There are no problems between Christians and Muslims and Jews.”

Goldberg noted that the interview with Salman took place before the recent deadly violence on the Israeli-Gaza border.

“I do not believe that the crown prince would have moderated his views in light of these events. The Saudis, like many Arab leaders, have tired of the Palestinians,” the journalist added.

On Friday, tens of thousands of Gazans converged on the Gaza Strip’s roughly 45-kilometer-long eastern border with Israel to reaffirm their right to return to their ancestral homes in historical Palestine.

Friday’s rallies marked the start of a six-week protest that culminates on May 15, the day the Palestinians call Nakba”, or “Catastrophe”, marking Israel’s creation in 1948.

The number of Gazans killed by Israeli gunfire during the demonstrations has risen to 18.

The demonstrators are demanding that Palestinian refugees be allowed the right of return to towns and villages that their families fled from or were driven out of when the state of Israel was created.