Iran Press/ Europe: Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich made the comments on Sunday in Paris, on a trip during which he met no French government officials.
"There are no Palestinians because there isn't a Palestinian people," Smotrich said then, quoting French-Israeli Zionist activist Jacques Kupfer at an event held in his memory. This was caught on video and circulated on social media.
Earlier, he supported the attacks of Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the Hawara region in the south of Nablus and called for ethnic cleansing in the region.
The comments sparked condemnation from the Palestinian Authority, Egypt and Jordan.
France on Tuesday described an Israeli minister's remarks denying the existence of the Palestinian people as "irresponsible."
"We call on persons who have been called to high office within the Israeli government to show the required dignity, to respect that of others and to refrain from all action or declaration that could contribute to the escalation of tensions," the French foreign ministry said.Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, dubbed the minister's remarks "completely unhelpful," adding that the Palestinian people "obviously" exist.
In this regard, the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Mohammad Ashtiyeh, called the statements of the Finance Minister of the Zionist regime as terrorist and racist and said that these statements alone will be enough to be submitted to the International Criminal Court.
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