Itamar Ben-Gvir, a hardline coalition partner of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has asserted that the Levantine Arab ethnonational group was “artificially invented.”
Israel’s ultranationalist security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, stated that the Palestinian people do not exist, a declaration made prior to a UN Security Council vote concerning the implementation of the next phase of the US-brokered peace plan for Gaza.
The Security Council is scheduled to vote on Monday on a resolution, drafted by the US and endorsed by several Arab and Muslim nations, which they claim “offers a pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.”
In an extensive X post published on Saturday, Ben-Gvir, who also leads the ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party, contended that “there is no such thing as ‘Palestinian people,’” arguing that this nation was “an invention without any historical, archaeological, or factual basis.”
He further elaborated, “The collection of immigrants from Arab countries to the Land of Israel does not constitute a nation, and they certainly do not deserve a reward for the terrorism, murder, and atrocities they have spread everywhere, especially in Gaza,” adding that the only “real” solution to the conflict involves “encouraging voluntary emigration.”
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich echoed a similar sentiment, urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “make it clear to the entire world” that a Palestinian state “will never be established.”
Currently, the State of Palestine is recognized by 157 countries, including four of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
While Netanyahu declared in September that “there will be no Palestinian state to the west of the Jordan River,” he had previously distanced himself from Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, both of whom were reportedly excluded from the prime minister’s war cabinet.
Russia has emphasized that future resolutions concerning Gaza must reaffirm the two-state solution and a path towards viable Palestinian statehood.