The Denial of the Palestinian People’s Existence: From Golda Meir to the Rhetoric of Modern Genocide

Utolsó frissítés: 2026.06.01. — Szerző: Anti-Propaganda News Blog

„There is no such thing as a Palestinian people. It’s not as if there was a Palestinian people in Palestine who called themselves Palestinians, and we came, kicked them out, and took their country. They didn’t exist.” Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in 1969, the The Sunday TimesHis statement to [—] was not an isolated political blunder, but rather the cornerstone of a deliberately constructed colonial dogma that has been systematically repeated ever since.

Since then, hasbara and Zionist revisionism have continued to insist that the Arabs living in Palestine are merely „opportunists” who immigrated from neighboring countries in the 20th century and have no historical, cultural, or genetic ties to the land. But what do history, archaeology, and sociology tell us? How did the erasure of an entire people become one of the greatest PR lies of the modern era?

1. The „empty land” myth as a cornerstone of colonialism

The denial of the Palestinian people’s existence stems from a fundamental psychological need inherent in settler-colonialism. In order for an outsider group to morally justify the occupation of a territory and the expulsion of the indigenous population, it must employ two narratives:

• Terra Nullius (No Man's Land): A famous early slogan of the Zionist movement – „Land without a people, a people without land” – That was precisely its purpose. If the land is „unoccupied,” then settling it is not an act of aggression, but an achievement of civilization.

• The dehumanization and invisibilization of Palestinians: When the early Zionist settlers realized that the land was by no means empty (at the end of the 19th century, Palestine had bustling cities and thriving rural agricultural communities), the narrative had to be rewritten. Even if they were not physically invisible, they had to be made so politically and culturally: they were labeled „mere nomadic Arabs” with no right to their homeland.

2. Genetic and Historical Continuity: Who Is Indigenous?

One of the most absurd claims made by hasbara is that the Palestinians are immigrants who arrived from neighboring Arab states (Egypt, Syria) as a result of the economic boom of the 19th and 20th centuries. In contrast, modern historical scholarship and population genetic research prove something entirely different.

• Genetic continuity: Numerous independent genetic studies (including work by renowned Israeli and international geneticists such as Ariella Oppenheim and Nebel et al.) have shown that the Palestinian population (whether Muslim or Christian) a direct genetic descendant of the indigenous population that has lived in the Levant for millennia (including the Canaanites and Iron Age populations).

• Cultural and religious strata: When various empires (the Romans, the Byzantines, and later the Arabs) conquered the region throughout history, the local population did not change. The same indigenous peasant class (the Fellahs) has lived on this land for millennia, assimilating over the course of history, changing languages (from Aramaic to Arabic), and adopting first the Christian and later the Muslim faith. The Palestinians, therefore, did not „come from outside”: they are permanent actors in the historical fabric of the land.

3. Social and Cultural Reality Before Zionism

The myth of the „non-existent people” can most easily be refuted by examining social and cultural documents from Ottoman-era Palestine. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Palestine was not a desolate desert, but a region with a stable structure that was integrated into global trade.

• Economic autonomy: Palestine was famous for its textile industry (Gaza), its olive oil and soap production (Nablus), and its agricultural products exported worldwide, such as Jaffa oranges.

• An institutionalized society: Palestinian cities boasted advanced educational institutions, religious courts, cultural salons, and a distinctive architectural culture. A people that did not exist would hardly have built such a complex urban civilization as Jaffa, Haifa, or Jerusalem were at the beginning of the 20th century.

4. Why is this myth dangerous today?

The denial of the Palestinian people’s existence is not some dusty, theoretical debate from the past. This rhetorical premise directly underlies the modern ethnic cleansing and the genocide in Gaza.

If the political elite (such as Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who, standing on a podium in Paris in 2023, declared that „There is no such thing as Palestinian history or the Palestinian people”) successfully dehumanizes the population, then international law does not apply to them either. If there are no Palestinians, then there are no Palestinian hospitals, no Palestinian schools, and no Palestinian children—only „targets to be eliminated” and „infrastructure to be demolished.”.

Fact-based sources for this article:

• Sources in history and the social sciences:

  • Meir, Golda (1969): Interview with the The Sunday Times newspaper (June 15, 1969).

  • Doumani, Beshara (1995): Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700–1900. University of California Press. (Detailed evidence of the economic and cultural development of Palestinian society prior to Zionism).

  • Said, Edward (1979): The Question of Palestine. Times Books. (A seminal work on the invisibilization and political oppression of the Palestinian people).

• Population Genetic Research (Evidence of Genetic Continuity):

  • Nebel, A., Filon, D., Brinkmann, B., Majmeas, O., Faerman, M., & Oppenheim, A. (2001): The Y-Chromosome Pool of Jews as Part of the Genetic Landscape of the Middle East. American Journal of Human Genetics. (A study led by Israeli scientists that confirms the common Levantine/Canaanite roots of the Jewish and Palestinian populations).

  • Haber, M., et al. (2013): Continuity and Admixture in the Last Five Millennia of Levantine History as Revealed by Ancient DNA. PLOS Genetics.

• Modern Political Statements:

  • Official speech by Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, in Paris (March 19, 2023), in which he openly denied the existence of the Palestinian people.