Posted on 03/25/2023 9:54:02 PM PDT by Postel
Smotrich said Sunday: "There is no such thing as Palestinians because there is no such thing as a Palestinian people." Predictably, Old Joe Biden’s handlers and other Leftists are enraged.. on the wrong side of the truth... Kirby wisely didn’t say that Smotrich’s assertion was false, .. The European Union, meanwhile, was much angrier than Kirby, ..run. Despite the EU’s rage, what Smotrich said was actually correct. Smotrich said: "Who are the Palestinians? I am Palestinian." He noted that before the founding of the State of Israel, the Jews in the Holy Land were known as "Palestinians." Meanwhile, "the Palestinian nation has existed for less than one hundred years." Smotrich issued a challenge: "I ask you who was the first Palestinian King, what language do they have, was there ever a Palestinian coin. Is there a Palestinian history or culture? There isn’t. There is no such thing as a Palestinian nation… They created a fictional nation and then worked for their fictitious rights to the Land of Israel just to battle against the Zionist movement. That is the historical truth and the biblical truth. That is the truth and there is no alternative." Indeed. Smotrich concluded: "This truth needs to be heard by the Arabs in Israel. This truth needs to be heard by the Jewish people in Israel who have gotten confused. This truth needs to be heard in the Elysee and in the White House. This truth must be heard by the whole world because this is the truth." Yes, it is. In 1948, when the modern State of Israel was founded, the Arabs of the area were offered a state also and rejected it. But no one called them "Palestinians." The "Palestinian" nationality had not yet been invented.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
Bookmarked.
Israel’s Smotrich: There is no such thing as a Palestinian people
By TOVAH LAZAROFF Published: MARCH 20, 2023
Smotrich is among a number of far-right politicians who do not accept the adoption by regional Arabs of the term Palestinian to describe themselves.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich dismissed the existence of a Palestinian people in a speech he delivered in Paris on Sunday.
“There is no such thing as Palestinians because there is no such thing as a Palestinian people,” said Smotrich who heads the Religious-Zionist-Party.
“Who are the [real] Palestinians? I am Palestinian,” he said.
He recalled his family’s 13 generations in the Land of Israel, mentioning his grandmother who had been born in the northern border town of Metula over a hundred years ago before the creation of the state.
His ancestors and his grandmother were “Palestinians,” he said
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich seen during a press conference, at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem, on January 25, 2023. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
Before 1948, the territory that now encompasses the modern state of Israel had been called Palestine. The Romans used that term to refer to that territory after they conquered the ancient state of Israel.
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When modern Zionists at the end of the 19th century spoke of a return to their land, they spoke of going to Palestine a name that appeared on all documents and currency relating to pre-state Israel.
Smotrich is among a number of far-right politicians who do not accept the adoption by regional Arabs of the term Palestinian to describe their ethnicity and national movement as well as their aspirations for self-determination in a state which will be called Palestine.
He outlined this philosophy in his Hebrew language speech in Paris, which was translated into English.
Smotrich compared Jewish history in the region which dates back thousands of years with that of the modern-day Palestinians, whose history, he said was absent.
‘A fictional nation,’ Smotrich charges
“The Palestinian nation has existed for less than one hundred years,” he nothing that they do not meet the international standards for nationhood since they are lacking a unique history, culture, language and currency.
“I ask you who was the first Palestinian King, what [unique] language do they have, was there ever a Palestinian coin. Is there a Palestinian history or culture? There isn’t. There is no such thing as a Palestinian nation.
The Palestinians, he said, are regional Arabs who arrived in the Land of Israel at the same of the first major waves of immigration at the end of the 19th century.
When the biblical prophecies were brought to fruition with the return of the Jews to their land, there were Arabs that did not like this, Smotrich said.
“What happened? They created a fictional nation and then worked for their fictitious rights to the Land of Israel just to battle against the Zionist movement. That is the historical truth and the biblical truth. That is the truth and there is no alternative,” Smotrich said.
“This truth needs to be heard by the Arabs in Israel. This truth needs to be heard by the Jewish people in Israel who have gotten confused. This truth needs to be heard in the Elysee and in the White House. This truth must be heard by the whole world because this is the truth,” Smotrich stated.
United States National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told Channel 12 that such remarks were “unhelpful.”
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-734835
The following is from 2016, opinion at JPost.
____
A Palestinian fiction
By GILAD SHARON, Published: JULY 28, 2016
The Palestinians hitched a ride on the back of Zionism. Many of them came here in the wake of the Zionists, to make a living from them.
The idea behind the new bill allowing for the expulsion of a member of Knesset from the parliament is to limit an MK’s public expressions of identification with Palestinian nationalism and its violent manifestations.
But the bill also raises a more basic question: Is Palestinian nationalism real or is it a fiction whose sole aim is to wipe us off the face of the Earth? The fact that the question affects us directly requires that we examine it closely. The fundamental aspiration, the ultimate dream, of every national movement is a state of its own. A little bigger, a little smaller – it doesn’t matter, just as long as it’s their own independent state. By definition, the purpose of a national movement is to work to realize that dream.
A quick review of Palestinian activities over the past hundred years reveals no evidence of any efforts of that sort. In Zionism’s early decades, there was no such thing as a Palestinian nation. At most, the Palestinians were a vestige of some pan-Arab nation, which also turned out to be an oriental fairy tale (pan-Arabism breathed its last with the death of Nasser).
Until the UN Partition Plan in 1947, Zionism devoted all its energy to creating national institutions and making preparations for the establishment of a state.
What were the Palestinians doing during that time? Were they also busy preparing for the founding of their state? No. Their efforts were directed entirely toward preventing the founding of ours.
Had they accepted the Partition Plan, they would now have a state the same age as Israel. All the territory they are demanding today – and more – would already belong to them, and there wouldn’t be a single Palestinian refugee. But they didn’t even consider that option. As far as they were concerned, their rejection of the plan was a foregone conclusion.
Why? Because they didn’t aspire to a state of their own. All they wanted was to thwart the establishment of ours.
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Almost 70 years have elapsed, and there’s been no change in Palestinian aspirations. In the 19 years between the War of Independence and the Six Day War, they never established a state. In fact, Article 24 of the first Palestinian National Charter (the one they’d like to forget), published in east Jerusalem in 1964, states that the Palestine Liberation Organization “does not exercise any territorial sovereignty over the West Bank... [or] on the Gaza Strip.”
That was three years before the Six Day War. How is it that in their founding charter, the Palestinians declared they had no wish to rule over the very same land they are now demanding? The reason is that the results of the Six Day War are the pretext, not the cause, of Palestinian violence. That was here long before the war. It’s also the reason why Ehud Barak failed to reach an agreement with Yasser Arafat, and why Ehud Olmert failed to reach an agreement with Mahmoud Abbas, and why it will never be possible to reach an agreement with the Palestinians.
Is a nation whose members’ fondest dream is to be granted an identity card by the enemy really a nation? There are only three Muslim nations in the region: the Egyptians, the Persians, and the Turks.
The Palestinians hitched a ride on the back of Zionism. Many of them came here in the wake of the Zionists, to make a living from them. Their spurious nationality is a by-product of Zionism. It wouldn’t have been invented if it weren’t for Zionism, and couldn’t survive without it.
When it comes right down to it, we have to do what’s best for us. That means not intermingling with them and not trusting them, because what matters to them is not their own benefit, but our destruction.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/a-palestinian-fiction-462680
Strictly from a genetic standpoint. Is not what the news media labels as the Palestinian people today, actually the Jews that lost the temple in 70 AD?
I don’t think European Jews were being Zionists in 1760 (260 years ago, 13 generation.)
Nor was the land empty of people before the end of the 19th century.
There were regionalJews, and regional Arabs, both Christian and Muslim, living under the Ottoman Empire. They had a regional culture.
Jews lived under the rule of others, without currency or a king, without all speaking the same language, or even the same religion (many atheists) for centuries, but this scornful man believes they unlike others have a right to be a nation.
He’s not selling it very well.
Many people in this world say “This is our land, we won it by conquest.” That’s why our country exists.
It’s the contempt for the Palestinians, and the lying, that turn my stomach.
I guess we had plenty of contempt for the Indians, and we lied, a lot. Treaty? What treaty?
Maybe it’s best not to mix conquest and moralizing.
Arguably, though the Palestinian people didn’t exist THEN, they do NOW. Partly because for all these years their Arab neighbors kept them from going home to their old countries, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, etc.
Leaving these people mainly in a set of refugee camps for generations.
Quite a few were Christian Arabs
As was much of the leadership of the resistance of the folks who lost their land
The truth enrages anyone denying ……
God says it belongs to the Jews. Thats good enough for me
For two millennia, the entire world knew that Palestine is the homeland of the Jews. From the man on the street to scholarly treatises, to travel books, to poetry, to children’s books. One example out of countless thousands is Mark Twain’s writings on his travels there. Nobody claimed Palestine was the homeland of anyone else. If I forget thee, oh Jerusalem.
ALL ARABS CELEBRATE PRO-PHET'S BIRTHDAY; Christians Join Moslems in Fete Unprecedented in Palestine--Hitler and Duce Cheered, The New York Times, May 23, 1937.
Biden’s handlers and the Nazis in the Snske Department are sone of the most dangerous people on earth
Palestine got its name.from the Roman emperor Hadrian. He was pissed off at Jews for revolting against Roman rule, so he insulted them by renaming their homeland after their ancient, but extinct enemies, the Philistines.
IIRC, those who lived there in 1948 were supposed to go to Jordan but many chose not to do so. Those who stayed would become Israeli. They didn’t have to convert, they didn’t have to give anything up.
Now they want to claim Israel as theirs.
I am sorry for them on some level. They had a solution imposed upon them by entities who had little right to do so. I do not think I would take too kindly to being told my generational land was not mine anymore but was being given to THAT guy over there.
But that is what happened. And it happens all the time all over the place.
The refugee camps you mention were a horror. And not caused by Israel.
Kirby probably didn’t understand the question. Not the brightest bulb on the shelf .
The vast majority of Palestinians are Jordanian in ancestry.
CC
Meanwhile Israel existed as a nation for thousands of years beforehand.
Persia, Egypt, and Assyria have also been around a long time but not many other of the countries surrounding Israel, IIRC.
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