Outcry over far-right Israeli minister denying existence of Palestinians

Bezalel Smotrich (right) made controversial remarks about Palestine.

The Palestinian Authority and several Arab countries on Monday strongly denounced the remarks of a far-right Israeli minister who denied the existence of Palestinians as individuals and as a people.

The Palestinian Authority and several Arab countries on Monday strongly denounced the remarks of a far-right Israeli minister who denied the existence of Palestinians as individuals and as a people.

There are no Palestinians, because there are no Palestinian people, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Sunday evening during a visit private in Paris, according to a video widely shared on social networks.

This kind of comment does not help at all, said Farhan Haq, spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The UN will continue to support the rights of the Palestinian people and push for a two-state solution, Israeli and Palestinian, living side by side in peace and security, he added.

< p class="e-p">On a private visit to Paris, Mr. Smotrich made the statements on the same day of talks in Egypt in an attempt to ease tensions as Ramadan approaches and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is sucked into a new spiral of violence that has already left more than a hundred dead since the beginning of the year.

After 2000 years of exile, the prophecies [of the Bible] begin to come true and … the people of Israel return home, Smotrich said.

“There are Arabs around who don't like it, so what are they doing? They invent a fictitious people and claim fictitious rights to the land of Israel.

— Bezalel Smotrich, Minister of Finance of Israel

These inflammatory remarks that there is no Palestinian people and that they is an invention […] are irrefutable proof of the racism of the hardline Zionist ideology of the Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, said Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh.

But for Mr. Smotrich, this is the historical truth, this is the biblical truth […] and this truth, the Arabs in Israel must hear it [and it] must be heard here at the Élysée Palace, and at the White House in Washington

These words bear witness to Israel's racist and fascist policies, the Islamist movement Hamas has said , calling on the international community, including France, to take a firm stand against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories.

Mr. Smotrich made his remarks behind a lectern with a map of Israel including the territories it has occupied since 1967 and neighboring Jordan. extreme racism, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry has warned that using [such] a map could be a violation of the 1994 Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty.

The Israeli ambassador to Jordan was then summoned by the authorities who gave him a letter of protest in strong terms that he must forward to his government, the Jordanian ministry said in the evening.

< p class="e-p">Israel's Foreign Ministry has affirmed Israel's commitment to the peace agreement with Amman, assuring that the State's position; Israel, which recognizes the territorial integrity of the Hashemite Kingdom, [had] not changed.

Cairo called Mr. Smotrich's remarks racist, inflammatory and unacceptable. a similar meeting held in Jordan on February 26 and signaling a commitment by Israel and the Palestinian Authority to de-escalation, which was then hardly followed effects.

Even as the meeting was taking place in Jordan, two young Israeli settlers were shot dead in their car in Huwara, a Palestinian town in the northern occupied West Bank. In retaliation, settlers attacked Huwara, burning dozens of buildings and cars.

I think Huwara should be wiped out, Mr. Smotrich said, before stepping down. retract in the face of the international outcry caused by this declaration.

Another far-right figure in the Netanyahu government, Itamar Ben Gvir, Minister of National Security, announced the closure, in annexed East Jerusalem, of a production office working on behalf of Radio -Palestinian public television, claiming that this company was not regularly registered with the Israeli authorities and accusing it of incitement to hatred.

Asked by AFP, Ahmad Assaf, head of Palestinian public broadcasting recalled that the office of Palestine TV in East Jerusalem was closed by Israel in 2018 and condemned Mr. Ben Gvir's decision as a crime against journalism.

Israel announced measures at the same time aimed at easing the restrictions imposed on the Palestinians and supposed to allow them to come in greater numbers to come to pray on the esplanade of the Mosques in Jerusalem – the third holiest site in Islam – during the r amadan, which is due to start on Wednesday or Thursday.