A top Israeli minister is in the eye of a storm after he said there was no Palestinian history or culture and no such thing as a Palestinian people. The minister also said Palestinian people are “an invention” of the past century, triggering a backlash.
Speaking at a conference on Sunday, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, said, “Is there a Palestinian history or culture? There is none. There is no such thing as a Palestinian people.” The video of the footage, now viral on social media, has angered Palestine, Jordan and Western allies.
Bezalel Smotrich, delivered a speech saying the notion of a Palestinian people was artificial.
Smotrich, who heads a religious-nationalist party in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition, was speaking at a podium. It was covered in what appeared to be a variation of the Israeli flag that showed an Israeli state with expanded boundaries that included the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza and Jordan, reported news agency Reuters.
