Palestinian PM blasts 'racism' of Israeli minister
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Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was slammed for his "racist" statements, accusing Arabs of "inventing fictitious people and claiming fictitious rights."
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Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh. (AFP)
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh blasted on Monday "inflammatory" remarks made by far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich that "Palestinians do not exist."
"There are no Palestinians because there are no Palestinian people," Smotrich said on Sunday, quoting French-Israeli Zionist activist Jacques Kupfer while speaking at an event in Paris according to a video circulating on social media.
"After 2,000 years of exile, the prophecies of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah are beginning to come true and God is gathering his people, the people of 'Israel' are returning home", Smotrich said.
He added that there are Arabs who don't like it, stressing that they invent fictitious people and claim fictitious rights "to the land of 'Israel'," only to fight the Zionist movement.
Last year, Smotrich became a minister in the cabinet of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which analysts call the "most right-wing government in the country's history."
He added that "it is the historical truth, it is the biblical truth... the Arabs in 'Israel' must hear it, as well as certain Jews who are confused in 'Israel', this truth must be heard here at the Elysee Palace (in Paris), and at the White House in Washington, and everyone must hear this truth."
Speaking before the cabinet meeting of the Palestinian Authority on Monday, Shtayyeh said the "inflammatory statements are consistent with the first Zionist sayings of a land without a people for a people without a land."
He said the comments were "conclusive evidence of the extremist, racist Zionist ideology... of the current Israeli government."
Smotrich has history of incendiary comments
However, Smotrich and his group have a history of making incendiary remarks about Palestinians.
Earlier this month, US ambassador to "Israel" Thomas Nides attacked Bezalel Smotrich in response to the latter's statements on Israeli outlets, in which he urged for the obliteration of a Palestinian city.
"I am really angry with him, he is stupid," said Nides, according to "Israel Hayom", who only reported on this matter in Hebrew. Nides then added that Smotrich "has a flight to Washington" and "if I could I would throw him off the plane."
Previously, Smotrich, one of the most senior members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, was quoted by Israeli media saying “I think the village of Huwara needs to be wiped out. I think 'Israel' should do it.”
A day later, Former Israeli Prime Minister and opposition leader Yair Lapid viciously attacked Smotrich on March 5 after the latter accused him of paying factory owners to take their investments abroad. "Smotrich is a liar, and son of a liar, carrying on with his campaign of lies. This time he claimed on the broadcast that I called on factory owners to take their factories out of 'Israel'," Lapid said.
"Just a gross lie from a liar. If there is a record of me saying this, feel free to sue me. Why is he lying? Because he knows he is leading to the destruction of the economy with his own hands," the former premier added.
Last month, Smotrich called for the Palestinian town of Huwara in the occupied West Bank to be "wiped out" after two Israelis were shot dead by a Palestinian resistance fighter. Hundreds of Israeli settlers later torched Palestinian homes and cars in the West Bank town.
