Kais Saied
Kais SaiedReuters

Tunisian President Kais Saied on Thursday criticized the “Deal of the Century”, the new US plan for peace between Israel and Palestinian Arabs, calling it the "injustice of the century", Reuters reports.

"It is the injustice of the century ... Palestine is not an orchard to be a subject of a deal," Saied was quoted as having said in an interview with Tunisian state-run television.

Saied also criticized what he described as "a culture of defeat in the Arab world", according to Reuters.

Tunisia is serving a two-year term on the United Nations Security Council. Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas will speak in the Council in the next two weeks about the plan, which he rejected right away and said it would be relegated to the "dustbin of history."

The peace plan calls for the creation of a Palestinian state with part of eastern Jerusalem as its capital. The PA would receive land in southern Israel as part of a land swap for areas to which Israel would apply sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.

Saied has in the past said that anybody who normalizes relations with Israel, with which he said Tunisia is in a state of war, should be tried for treason.

Tunisia, like most Arab countries, does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.

In 2014, Tunisia's tourism minister faced criticism from parliamentarians over a trip to Israel she took in 2006 to take part in a UN training program for Palestinian Arab youths.

In 2017, Tunisia banned the film "Wonder Woman" which stars Israeli actress Gal Gadot, because Gadot had defended Israel's counterterrorism Operation Protective Edge on Facebook.

And, in 2018, a Tunisian legislator ripped up an Israeli flag during a parliament session to push his demands for a law criminalizing relations with Israel.