Palestine, Public Sentiment and the Limits of Omani Foreign Policy Discourse

Abstract

This article examines how expressions of solidarity with Palestine in Oman reveal transformations in state–society relations during the Gaza war of 2023–2025, a period of leadership transition and regional rupture. Drawing on elite statements, opinion columns and semi‐structured interviews, it combines framing analysis with thematic analysis to trace three interpretive frames: the discursive domestication of neutrality, in which official non‐alignment is translated into moral virtue; moral anchoring and managed expression, in which Palestine functions as a civilisational reference point whereas its public expression remains bounded; and religious amplification and managed asymmetry, in which the Grand Mufti's moral‐religious language complements the state's self‐described neutrality. The discursive intensification following October 2023 reflects two causes working together. Sultan Haitham inherited Qaboos‐era diplomatic institutions but not the same symbolic authority, making ambiguity on Palestine more costly for a government still consolidating its legitimacy, and the genocide in Gaza would have raised that cost for any Gulf government regardless of succession.