Sec.-Gen. Of The Organization Of Islamic Cooperation Yousef Al-Othaimeen: The Palestinians Need To Think Outside The Box, Try Different Ways To Achieve Peace With Israel, Two-State Solution

Saudi politician Yousef Al-Othaimeen, the Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, said in an October 18, 2020 interview on Sky News Arabia (UAE) that in order to achieve a resolution to the Palestinian issue, people need to "think outside the box." He said that war has not resolved the issue, so maybe the Palestinians should try different ways to reach a two-state solution. He asked what the point is of insisting that boycotting Israel is the only viable course of action. For more about Yousef Al-Othaimeen, see MEMRI Special Dispatch no. 7184.

Yousef Al-Othaimeen: "One is required to think outside the box in search for peace. I do not think a reasonable person— whether Palestinian, Arab, or Muslim — would refuse any initiative to resolve the [Palestinian] cause in any way. The [Palestinian] cause has been going on for 70 years. We have tried wars, we have tried to throw Israel into the sea, and we have tried many other things.

"This new generation of our Palestinian brothers should try some ideas that may lead to the resolution of this problem, which is important to all of us and to the Islamic world, but in new ways. We should try what has not been tried yet, in order to bring about a two-state solution, in which East Jerusalem will be the capital of that newborn state.

"Yesterday, I saw a press conference on Sky News with three important ministers from Iraq, Egypt, and Jordan... All three of them emphasized this. The challenge is how to reach that goal. What is the point of insisting that there is only one way — the path of boycott and keeping away? There may be ways that are not traditional and have not been tried yet."