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London, Wednesday, July 10, 2002 

World NewsOccupation ‘worse than Nazis’

By Richard Beeston, Diplomatic Editor

THE Saudi envoy to London was embroiled in a diplomatic row yesterday after describing the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land as worse than the Nazi occupation of Europe.

Ghazi Algosaibi, who caused outrage this year when he wrote a poem dedicated to a Palestinian teenage girl suicide bomber, said: “This is a war of occupation, far more severe than anything the Germans did when they occupied Europe in World War Two.”

The veteran diplomat told a meeting of the Arab Research Centre in London that the spate of suicide attacks against Israeli civilian targets was simply a form of defence by Palestinians who had no other means to fight.

Last night a Foreign Office spokesman described the remarks as “wrong and insensitive”.