Netanyahu rejects Palestine state as far-right revolts
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel remained opposed to a Palestinian state after far-right coalition allies protested a US-backed statement saying it supported a path to Palestinian independence.
Netanyahu spoke two days after Israel’s key ally, the United States, and several Muslim-majority countries approved a draft U.N. resolution supporting President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, saying the process offers a path to a Palestinian state.
The 15-member U.N. Security Council began negotiations Nov. 7 on a draft that would mandate Trump’s proposal for a “Peace Board” interim administration in Gaza to address issues including post-war reconstruction and economic recovery.
Trump’s 20-point plan includes an article that states that if reforms are made within the Palestinian Authority, “conditions may finally exist for Palestinian self-determination and a reliable path to statehood, which we recognize as the desire of the Palestinian people.”
The point infuriated Israeli far-right leaders who opposed the Trump-brokered October ceasefire in Gaza, testing Netanyahu’s awkward governing coalition of conservatives and ultranationalists.
On Saturday, far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich called on Netanyahu to condemn the idea of a Palestinian state. Ben-Gvir threatened to leave the ruling coalition if the prime minister did not act.
Netanyahu said in a statement on Sunday: “Our opposition to a Palestinian state has not changed in any region. The easy way or the hard way, Gaza will be demilitarized and Hamas will be disarmed. I don’t need anyone’s approval, tweets or lectures.”
A strike by the far right could topple Netanyahu’s right-wing government long before the next election, which is due in October 2026.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar also made statements about X against the Palestinian state on Sunday, without mentioning Netanyahu.
Trump’s Gaza plan ends a major conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas after two years of war that devastated the Palestinian territory and triggered conflicts that spread across the Middle East.
Netanyahu adopted Trump’s plan during his visit to the White House in September, but did not make a new statement on the Palestinian state issue until Sunday.
Ahead of the White House visit, Netanyahu said he would respond to a number of major Western countries, including France, which formally recognized the Palestinian state in September, angering Israel but taking no diplomatic action.
On Saturday, Smotrich accused Netanyahu of breaking his promise and called on him to immediately prepare a response: “It’s been two months of choosing silence and political disgrace.”
He called on Netanyahu to “clearly explain to the whole world that a Palestinian state will never emerge on the lands of our homeland.”
Two years of intense Israeli bombardment and ground assaults on the Gaza Strip have killed more than 69,000 people, according to local health officials. According to Israel’s calculations, the war began with a cross-border attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed approximately 1,200 people.
The ceasefire came into effect on October 10, but there have been repeated, albeit scattered, outbreaks of violence since then.
