Normalisation, Palestine, stability: Saudi Arabia’s agenda

Every year since 2019, one of the world’s biggest music festivals has taken place in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. It hosts top international and local artists and attracts hundreds of thousands of people. When the festival first started, I knew that one day I, as an Israeli, would go there. I love music festivals, I love people dancing, but more than anything, I dream of visiting Saudi Arabia—a country I’ve researched for over two decades. It has fascinated me since the moment we first “met”. I didn’t plan to dedicate my academic (and maybe even personal) life to it, but I couldn’t help it. It’s more thrilling than any mystery novel. It keeps changing and evolving, with one drama after another.

Back in 2019, the idea of dancing to music in the Saudi capital seemed like a fantasy. But a year later, the “Abraham Accords” were signed between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan—and the path forward looked promising. On September 20, 2023, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman gave an interview to American television and described the dramatic progress in Saudi-Israeli relations toward normalization: “Every day we get closer.”

That was all I needed to hear. I told my family that in December, I’d be at the music festival in Riyadh, and hoped they’d manage without me.

But just few weeks later, on October 7 2023, Hamas launched a brutal terror attack on Israeli civilians. Normalization had its moment, but now it’s just waiting quietly in the background.

From the first stages of the war, Saudi Arabia called for a ceasefire. This demand wasn’t out of sympathy for Hamas’ attack—quite the opposite—but due to the real concern that the war would escalate and spread, with disastrous effects on the already fragile stability of the Middle East. As the war continued and the situation in Gaza worsened, Saudi criticism of Israel and its leadership grew harsher. Israel was accused of violating international law and committing war crimes. Netanyahu was portrayed as manipulating the ongoing war for political gain.