Israel’s finance minister, nationalist Bezalel Smotrich, has said that “the Palestinian people” does not exist as a “concept” invented 100 years ago.
The real Palestinians are the Jews who have lived in “the land of Israel” for two thousand years, he explained.
“There are Arabs in the Middle East who arrived in the land of Israel just as the Zionists returned, after two thousand years of exile. The Arabs in the region did not want it. What did they do? They invented a fictional people and claim fictitious rights about the land of Israel just to fight the Zionist movement”said the minister in Paris on Sunday evening.
“The truth must be told without turning heads at the lies and subversions of history by pro-Palestinian organizations and the BDS (Boycott Movement, Divestment, Sanctions),” said Smotrich, quoted in the Israeli press on Monday.
Bezabel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionism Party (Israeli far-right nationalist), further stated that the real Palestinians are the people who have inhabited the land of Israel for “centuries”.
The statements are in line with the stance of the movement that defends the representatives of the settlements that Smotrich is defending in the new Israeli government, including the positions of Itamar Ben Gvir, an ally of the executive, also known for his anti-Arab speech .
“My father was from Jerusalem. My grandmother, who was born at the time of the Zionist pioneers in Metula 100 years ago, is ‘Palestinian'”, he said.
Following a controversial visit to the United States marked by boycott attempts by American Jewish organizations and by the refusal of Joe Biden administration officials not to meet with the minister, Smotrich visited the city of Paris on Sunday for a ceremony in memory of Jacques Kupfer, Likud Party Jew and controversial Zionist activist who died in 2021.
At the ceremony, the current finance minister stated that Arabs have no historical rights over the “Land of Israel” – state territory, including occupied zones.
According to the finance minister, the Arabs (Palestinians) only arrived in the region to “stop the return of the Zionists”.
In early March, Smotrich said that Arabs (Palestinians) should disappear from the region of Huwara, Nablus.
“Under international law, a people is defined by history, culture, language, currency and leadership. Who was the first Palestinian king? What is the Palestinian language? Was there ever a Palestinian currency? Is there Palestinian history or culture?”declared on Sunday night to deny “Palestinian national identity”.
Source: DN
