At the request of Mr. William Polk, editor in the Cultural Affairs Department of the Ford Foundation—who was visiting the Arab world to prepare special cultural issues on the region—His Majesty King Saud graciously delivered the following message to the American people:
The Hopes and Sorrows of the Arabs
“The Ford Foundation has asked us to offer a message to the American people for publication in one of its cultural magazines devoted to the Arab world. We have nothing to add regarding the well‑known friendship between the American and Arab peoples except our earnest hope that our friends will understand the hopes and the pains of the Arabs, and that they will help demonstrate the goodwill of the American people by supporting the Arabs’ rightful claims—foremost among them the question of Palestine.”
“Millions of innocent Arabs—who possessed neither power nor means—were expelled from their homes, farms, and the dwellings of their forefathers of thousands of years, scattered across the world. This happened only because those who controlled policy in certain Western states found it in their personal interest to support the Zionists in their wrongdoing by driving these people from their land to make room for new settlers.”
Appeal to the American Conscience
“We Arabs have great confidence in the good intentions and sound conscience of the American people. We know that they do not approve of injustice nor accept wrongdoing. Yet Western governments have wronged the Arabs, expelled them from their homes, deprived them of living among their families, and interfered in their internal affairs.”
“Arabs love their homeland, their homes, their farms, and the peaceful life they enjoy on their land. The American people—who have themselves suffered injustice in their history—are among the nations most capable of understanding freedom, humanity, love of homeland, family life, and the meaning of belonging.”
“The Arabs have not attacked anyone, nor have they tried to expel anyone from his land, home, or farm. All they ask is to remain in their own land, homes, and farms, and to live peacefully with others.”
“I appeal to the human conscience of every American to reflect upon the millions of Arab refugees who were uprooted from their homeland so that others might settle in their place. What guilt have Arab women, children, and the elderly committed to be deprived of the most sacred of human rights—homeland, home, farm, family, and the right to live in peace?”
This Is the Arab Cause
“Dear American friends: this is the Arab cause. We address it to your conscience, confident that you are fair‑minded and just, that you support truth when it becomes clear to you, and that you help the oppressed.”
“Let each of you imagine himself in the place of one of these refugees—forced to abandon his home and farm, separated from his family, so that others may live in his place because certain Western politicians wished it so.”
“If you reflect on this even briefly, your Arab friends are certain that you will support justice and defend it. We share with you a love of freedom, homeland, and peaceful family life. We live free in our land and honor our guests.”
“To every fair‑minded American, we extend our warmest greetings and best wishes.”