The Palestinian Authority condemned Israel's far-right finance minister's rejection of the existence of Palestinian people, saying that provides "conclusive evidence" of the government's "racist ideology."
The far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is part of veteran leader Benjamin Netanyahu's government that took office in December, one of the most right-wing in the country's history.
Smotrich, who has a history of incendiary remarks, faced international rebuke earlier this month after calling for a Palestinian town in the occupied West Bank to be "wiped out."
"There are no Palestinians, because there isn't a Palestinian people," he said on Sunday in Paris, quoting French-Israeli Zionist activist Jacques Kupfer at an event in his memory, according to a video circulating on social media.
As he made the speech, he stood at a podium covered in what appeared to be a variation of the Israeli flag that showed an Israeli state with expanded boundaries that included the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza and Jordan.
A spokesperson for Smotrich, head of one of the religious-nationalist parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-right coalition, said the flag was set as decoration by the conference organizers and that the minister was a guest.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said ahead of a Cabinet meeting on Monday the "inflammatory statements" made by Smotrich "are consistent with the first Zionist sayings of 'a land without a people for a people without a land.'"
They provided "conclusive evidence of the extremist, racist Zionist ideology... of the current Israeli government," Shtayyeh said.
A separate statement by the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said that, by denying the existence of the Palestinian people and their legitimate national rights in their homeland, Israeli leaders "foster an environment that fuels Jewish extremism and terrorism against our people."
Such positions "continue the spiral of violence with the aim of sabotaging efforts to achieve calm."
Evoking biblical "prophecies" that are "beginning to come true," Smotrich said: "After 2,000 years... God is gathering his people. The people of Israel are returning home."
"There are Arabs around who don't like it, so what do they do? They invent a fictitious people and claim fictitious rights to the land of Israel, only to fight the Zionist movement," he said.
"It is the historical truth, it is the biblical truth," he added.
"The Arabs in Israel must hear it, as well as certain Jews in Israel who are confused – this truth must be heard here at the Elysee Palace (in Paris), and at the White House in Washington, and everyone must hear this truth."
The minister, who met no French government officials during his trip, was speaking from a lectern that featured a map of a "Greater Israel," including the West Bank, annexed Golan Heights, blockaded Gaza Strip and Jordan, the neighboring Arab country that signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the Six-Day War of 1967, when it also seized East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights.
Smotrich's comments came as Israeli and Palestinian representatives met in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Shiekh along with Egyptian, Jordanian and U.S. officials for "extensive discussions on ways to de-escalate tensions between the Palestinians and Israelis," according to a joint statement.
The Jordanian Foreign Ministry on Monday condemned the minister's remarks, calling them "extremist racism" and Smotrich himself an "extremist."
It warned in a statement that his "use of a map... that encompasses the border of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan" may be in violation of the 1994 peace accord.
Hamas in Gaza said the comments revealed the "racist and fascist policies" of Israel, urging the international community to take a "firm stance."
Violence has intensified in the West Bank in recent months, coinciding with Netanyahu's return to office.
Since the start of the year, the conflict has claimed the lives of 86 Palestinian adults and children, including security forces and civilians.
Fourteen Israeli adults and children, including soldiers and civilians, and one Ukrainian civilian have been killed over the same period, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) tally based on official sources from both sides.
On Sunday, while talks were underway in Egypt, an Israeli was seriously wounded in a shooting attack in Huwara.
