Far-right lawmaker Bezalel Smotrich said Sunday that the Palestinian
people were “an invention” from the last 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 was speaking from a podium that featured a map of “Greater
Israel” that included the territory of modern-day Jordan, in accordance
with hardline aspirations by some early Zionist groups.
Smotrich has a 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.”
Earlier this month, 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.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich at a press conference in Tel Aviv, March 2, 2023. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
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.”
“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 Emmanuel 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.
Turning to Israel’s Arab communities, the ultranationalist lawmaker
claimed that they should “stop spitting into the well [they] are
drinking from.”
“The State of Israel is a miracle, Israel’s economy is a miracle.
Contrary to the lies of the leaders of the [BDS] campaign that are
spreading against us in the world, we are spreading good to all the
residents of the country, Jews and non-Jews. Look around, in all 22
[Muslim-majority] countries, is there another country where [people
live] such a good life? A modern country with a developing economy, with
freedom of religion, freedom of expression… There is no country like
this in the world. Stop fighting the State of Israel and the people of
Israel. You will lose and we will win because the Holy One, blessed be
He, is with us,” Smotrich said.
The comments came hours after Israeli and Palestinian Authority delegations met on Sunday
for a relatively rare, albeit low-stakes regional summit in Sharm
el-Sheikh, Egypt, where they recommitted to de-escalating tensions days
before the start of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
The meeting, with accompanying delegations from the United States,
Jordan and Egypt, was a follow-up to a similar gathering held in Aqaba,
Jordan last month — the first such high-level confab of Israeli and
Palestinian leaders in years. The sides have agreed to meet for a third
time next month.
On a visit to the US last week, where he met no US official from the
Biden administration, Smotrich told American investors he was sorry for
calling to “wipe out” the Palestinian town of Huwara and pledged to
“protect every innocent life, Jew or Arab,” even as several hundred
American Jews and Israeli ex-pats protested his appearance outside. Some
had called to deny Smotrich a US visa over the comment.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, fourth
from left, meets executives of US bank Citibank in New York, March 14,
2023. (Courtesy)
Smotrich spoke to some 150 leaders in the Israel Bonds organization
at a private gala dinner, attempting to drum up continued support for
Israel’s economy despite reports of investment money fleeing the country
due to the upheaval around the judicial overhaul plan being pushed by
Netanyahu’s government.
In Paris early last month, Netanyahu met with Macron, who warned
that without changes to his government’s far-reaching plans to overhaul
the judicial system, “Paris should conclude that Israel has emerged
from a common conception of democracy.”
Macron also pressed Netanyahu on rising violence between Israel and
the Palestinians, urging Israel to avoid “any measures that could fuel
the spiral of violence,” the palace said.
The French president also delivered a warning on Netanyahu’s attempts
to widen the Abraham Accords. “If you continue what you are doing in
Palestine, it will be difficult for Saudi Arabia to accept an agreement
with you,” Macron said.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron, right
gestures as he welcomes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, prior
to a working dinner at the Presidential Elysee Palace in Paris on
February 2, 2023. (Ludovic MARIN / AFP)
The prime minister said he must give something to his coalition in
terms of settlements, but that it would be less than what Smotrich and
fellow hard-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir desire. Both are vehemently
opposed to the establishment of any future Palestinian state.
Jacob Magid and Lazar Berman contributed to this report.
