Smotrich says there’s no Palestinian people, declares his family ’real Palestinians’ | The Times of Israel
▻https://www.timesofisrael.com/far-right-lawmaker-bezalel-smotrich-declares-himself-his-family-real-
❝Smotrich says there’s no Palestinian people, declares his family ‘real Palestinians’
Visiting France, far-right finance minister says Palestinian nation is ‘an invention of past 100 years,’ says the ‘whole world should hear this truth’
Far-right lawmaker Bezalel Smotrich said Sunday that the Palestinian people were “an invention” from the past century and that people like himself and his grandparents were the “real Palestinians.”
Speaking in Paris at a private memorial service for prominent right-wing Likud activist and Jewish Agency board member Jacques Kupfer, who passed away after a long battle with cancer in 2021, Smotrich said there was “no such thing as Palestinians because there’s no such thing as the Palestinian people,” a comment that was met with applause and cheers from attendees, as seen in a video from the event posted online.
“Do you know who are the Palestinians?” asked the head of the ultranationalist Religious Zionism party and Israel’s finance minister. “I’m Palestinian,” he said, also mentioning his grandmother who was born in the northern Israeli town of Metula 100 years ago, and his grandfather, a 13th-generation Jerusalemite as the “real Palestinians.”
Smotrich has a long history of making inflammatory statements against Palestinians, Arab citizens of Israel, non-Orthodox Jews, and the LGBTQ community including once declaring himself a “proud homophobe.” In 2021, he said David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, should have “finished the job” and kicked all Arabs out of the country when it was founded. Earlier that same year, he said members of Israel’s Arab minority communities were citizens “for now at least.”
Last week, the minister — a senior figure in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline coalition — stirred international outrage after calling to “wipe out” a Palestinian town in the West Bank following a deadly Palestinian terror attack that killed two Israeli brothers. He later backtracked the comment and apologized.
Smotrich also serves as a minister in the Defense Ministry, where coalition agreements gave him authority over some responsibilities of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a Defense Ministry unit in charge of civilian affairs in Area C of the West Bank where Israel has full security and civilian control, and it’s office, the Civil Administration. Area C comprises the 60 percent of the West Bank’s territory in which Israeli settlements are located and where Israel maintains military and administrative control over both the Israeli and the Palestinian populations.
Smotrich, a staunch opponent to the establishment of a Palestinian state, sees control of the Civil Administration as a means of extending Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank, replacing the military administration of the territory with direct control by the central government and its ministries.
On Sunday, in Hebrew remarks translated into French for the audience, Smotrich said, “the Palestinian people are an invention of less than 100 years ago.”
Religious Zionism head Bezalel Smotrich speaks on March 19, 2023 at a memorial service in Paris for prominent right-wing Likud activist and Jewish Agency board member Jacques Kupfer, who passed away after a long battle with cancer in 2021. (Screenshot via Ynet, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
“Is there a Palestinian history or culture? No. There were Arabs in the Middle East who arrived in the Land of Israel at the same time as the Jewish immigration and the beginning of Zionism. After 2,000 years of exile, the people of Israel were returning home, and there were Arabs around [us] who do not like it. So what do they do? They invent a fictitious people in the Land of Israel and claim fictitious rights in the Land of Israel just to fight the Zionist movement.”
“This is the historical truth. This is the biblical truth. The Arabs in the Land of Israel need to hear this truth. This truth should be heard here in the Élysée Palace,” said Smotrich, in reference to the official residence of French President Emmanual Macron, whose government is not meeting with Smotrich on this private trip to France.
“This truth should also be heard by the Jewish people in the State of Israel who are a little confused. This truth needs to be heard in the White House in Washington. The whole world needs to hear this truth because it is the truth — and the truth will win,” Smotrich continued.
