Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich addressed Arab-Israeli MKs in Knesset today and told them they “invented a people a day and a half ago,” a press release on behalf of his office reported on Wednesday.
Smotrich explained to those present why the Palestinian people allegedly “never existed” and why, in his view, a Palestinian state will never be established.
During his presentation he addressed Join List MK Osama Saadi and asked him what his surname was, when the MK answered Smotrich said: “You see? From Saudi Arabia, that is where you are from.”
MK Ahmad Tibi can be heard in a video of the speech laughing and pointing out that his own surname Tibi, means he comes from the city of Tayibe.
Smotrich said that the Palestinians have “nothing, where is the Palestinian King? The first Palestinian coin?” He added that Arabs can live in Israel as long as they accept that they live in a Jewish state, to which Tibi replied by saying in jest “thank you for this generosity.”
Mertz MK Nitzan Horovitz slammed Smotrich by saying that the surname of the minister is also the name of a town in the Ukraine, “does this mean Smotrich should return to that country?”
Smotrich is the name of both a town in the Western Ukraine and a river.