RIYADH, 6 June — Saudi Ambassador to London Ghazi Algosaibi said in an interview published yesterday that a group of Jews had beaten his son and four friends with baseball bats and bottles on the streets of the British capital.
"Twenty Jews with baseball bats, bottles and Israeli flags (beat) my son Fares ... who came home suffering from bruising and injuries," Algosaibi told Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister daily of Arab News.
He said the attack took place last month, and he informed neither the Foreign Office in London nor the Foreign Ministry in Riyadh. The Saudi youths were all wearing Palestinian scarves having just taken part in a pro-Palestinian demonstration, said the ambassador.
"If Palestinians or Muslims severely beat the son of the Israeli ambassador to London, can you imagine what would happen?" asked Algosaibi, who stirred controversy in April when he wrote a poem in praise of Palestinian bombers.
Asked if he would encourage his son Fares to carry out a "martyrdom-attack", the ambassador told the London-based daily: "I would not oppose it but I would tell him it was his decision."
Algosaibi added that his son and friends were boycotting US products in protest at Washington’s support for Israel.
"But personally I have my own point of view on this. Boycotting (US goods) could harm us more than serving our interests," he said.
"Every person has the right to defend his homeland by all means and anyone who does that and dies for the cause is a martyr," the envoy told Asharq Al-Awsat.
