(ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV, MARCH 20 - Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (leader of the nationalist party 'Religious Zionism') said yesterday at a conference in Paris that "we cannot speak of 'Palestinians' because there is no 'people Palestinian'".
According to Smotrich, the Palestinian people "is a fiction" devised a century ago to fight against the Zionist movement.
"Do you know who is Palestinian? - he asked the audience -. I am Palestinian. My grandmother, born in Metulla over 100 years ago into a family of pioneers who created settlements in the Galilee, she was Palestinian. My grandfather, who was the thirteenth generation of his family in Jerusalem, he was a true Palestinian."
"This is the truth - concluded Smotrich, quoted by the Israeli media - and it must be heard at the Elysée and also at the White House".
Two weeks ago Smotrich had aroused strong reproach in Washington for having hoped - after a serious terrorist attack - that an entire village in the West Bank would be "erased".
He then he had retracted those words.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtaeyeh today expressed indignation at Smotrich's new statements which, he said, "are conclusive proof of how extremist and racist the ideology of the current Israeli government is".
(ANSAmed).