Saudi Arabian Columnist Khalaf Al-Harbi. Photo: Alwatan.com.sa.

Saudi Arabian columnist Khalaf Al-Harbi recently published an article in the Saudi government daily Okaz, claiming that despite the “horrific acts of massacre” former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon carried out, the number of Arabs he killed is nowhere near that of those who died at the hands of Arab rulers, especially since the onset of the Arab Spring, according to MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute, on Wednesday.

MEMRI said the article was published on January 13, on the occasion of Sharon’s funeral. In the article, as well as pointing out the great number of Arab deaths due to Arab rulers, in Syria and Lebanon, Al-Harbi said that Zionists who had once claimed “Arabs as a barbaric people” were proven right by “a reality that exceeds imagination,” including “decapitations, bombing houses with explosive barrels, the rape of women, and the expulsion of millions of innocent civilians.”

“Today, as we ponder the news of the death of the [former] Israeli prime minister [Ariel Sharon], we find that, despite the horrific acts of massacre he carried out against the Palestinians, the number of his Arab victims is nowhere near that of the number of Arabs who have been murdered by tyrannical Arab [rulers] or killed in suicide bombings carried out by Arab terrorist groups.

“This is the truth, whose shame will haunt us throughout history: We cannot compare the number of Arabs killed on orders from Bashar Al-Assad, Hassan Nasrallah or the terrorists of ISIS [i.e., the jihad organization Islamic State of Iraq and Syria], or who were dispatched by the barbaric mechanisms of oppression throughout the greater Arab homeland, to the number of people [killed] by Sharon, who died without being tried in international court as global human rights organizations demanded.

“Had Sharon been placed in the same cage as Arab criminals, the judges would have seen that the number of victims killed in the massacres he carried out throughout his long military and political history does not come close to the number of victims killed in [even one] nonviolent protest that one of the criminal Arab [rulers] caged beside him had ordered to disperse.

“Sharon did everything for his nation. He participated in wars as an officer and defense minister, he slaughtered and conquered the territory of others, and he accepted the rules of the democratic game more than once and did not stubbornly remain in power when the Israeli voter did not reelect him. Even though he is a national hero in the eyes of his people, his family had to participate in the costs of his [medical] treatment after Israel capped the sum set aside for this purpose at four million dollars. This, because, in a country that staunchly guards public funds, no one is above the law, not even national heroes.

“Today we understand that, even using nuclear bombs, Sharon could not have done the Arabs more [harm] than they have caused themselves. The schisms and the blood feuds ongoing throughout the Arab homeland in general, and in Palestine in particular, exceed our enemies’ greatest hopes.

“Moreover, [until recently,] every extremist Zionist who tried to portray Arabs as a barbaric people who only understand the language of force [had to] base his argument on a few small lies. Today, however, [we face] a reality that exceeds imagination, [and includes] decapitations, bombing houses with explosive barrels, the rape of women, and the expulsion of millions of innocent civilians. [Now] the Zionists no longer have to try and distort the image of the Arabs using American cinema and global media, [for] the Arabs have provided them with a short cut. Now the world need only follow the news in order for to know how cheap human life is in Arab countries!”