There Is No Such Thing as the Palestinian People : Israeli Security Minister

Israeli hardline Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has claimed that “there is no Palestinian people”, ahead of a United Nations Security Council vote on the next phase of a U.S.-mediated peace plan for Gaza.

The Security Council is scheduled to vote on Monday (17 November) on a draft resolution proposed by the United States and supported by several Arab and Muslim-majority countries, which they say would pave the way for Palestinian self-determination and statehood.

Earlier, in a lengthy post on X on Saturday, Ben-Gvir—who also leads the ultra-nationalist Otzma Yehudit party—asserted that the Palestinian people do not exist. He argued that the identity was “invented without any historical, archaeological, or factual basis.”

He further wrote, “A nation cannot be made up of people who migrated from Arab countries to the land of Israel. They do not deserve any reward for the terrorism, killings, and atrocities they have spread everywhere, especially in Gaza.”

Meanwhile, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich made a similar appeal, urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare to the international community that a Palestinian state will never be established.

Currently, 157 countries recognize the State of Palestine, including four of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

On the other hand, Russia has emphasized that any future Gaza-related resolutions must reaffirm the two-state solution and the path toward establishing a viable Palestinian state.