By the Palestine Chronicle Staff
Far-right Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich said Sunday that the Palestinian people are an “invention” from the last century, Israeli media reported.
Speaking at a private memorial service for prominent Likud activist Jacques Kupfer, Smotrich said that “there is no such thing as the Palestinians because there is no such thing as the Palestinian people.”
According to the Israeli newspaper The Times of Israel, the comments were met with applause and cheers from the attendees.
Israel’s Smotrich Says Call to ‘Destroy’ Palestinian Village Was ‘A Slip of the Tongue’
“Do you know who the Palestinians are? I am Palestinian,” Smotrich also said, as seen in a video posted online.
“The Palestinian people are an invention that is less than 100 years old,” Smotrich added.
The Times of Israel also reported that “Smotrich was speaking from a podium that held a map of ‘Greater Israel’ that included the territory of present-day Jordan, according to the aspirations of some early Zionist groups.”
In his speech in Paris, Israel Smotrich said, The Palestinian people are an invention of the last century. There is no such thing as Palestine because there is no such thing as the Palestinian people
Thousands of Palestinians older than their state are still alive#SahabatPalestina_ID pic.twitter.com/4xfExEhruc— Anatolian Tiger (@HarimauAnatolia) March 20, 2023
Smotrich is well known for his racist views against Palestine. On March 1, he sparked international outrage by saying that the Palestinian village of Huwwara, in the occupied West Bank, should be removed from the state of Israel.
The US State Department then condemned the comments as “repugnant” and prompted the French government to announce that it had no plans to meet with Smotrich during his visit to Paris.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
