There was no such thing as Palestinians

"There was no such thing as Palestinians" is part of a widely repeated statement by Golda Meir, the then Israeli Prime Minister, in her second month in office, made in an interview with Frank Giles, then deputy editor of The Sunday Times on June 15, 1969, to mark the second anniversary of the Six-Day War.

It is considered to be the most famous example of Israeli denial of a distinct Palestinian identity.^[1] The quote has been frequently used to illustrate Israel's denial of Palestinian history, and is considered to sum up the Palestinians' sense of victimization by Israel.^[2] It is considered to be a successor to the early Christian Zionist phrase "A land without a people for a people without a land",^[3] and a predecessor of the controversial 1984 book From Time Immemorial and the 2017 satire A History of the Palestinian People.^{[citation needed]}

Edward Said, a Palestinian American professor and activist, asserted that it was Golda Meir's "most celebrated remark".^[4] Al Jazeera journalist Alasdair Soussi wrote that "Meir's jingoistic comments concerning Palestinians remain one of her defining – and most damning – legacies."^[5]

^ Waxman, D. (2006). The Pursuit of Peace and the Crisis of Israeli Identity: Defending/Defining the Nation. Palgrave Macmillan US. p. 50. ISBN 978-1-4039-8347-3. Archived from the original on 2023-02-28. Retrieved 2021-11-22. The denial of a separate and distinct Palestinian identity was most famously expressed in 1969 by then Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir when she stated: "There was no such thing as Palestinians. When was there an independent Palestinian people with a Palestinian state? ... It was not as though there was a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country from them. They did not exist."
^ Gelvin, J.L.; Gelvin, P.H.J.L. (2005). The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War. Cambridge University Press. pp. 92–93. ISBN 978-0-521-85289-0. Archived from the original on 2021-12-14. Retrieved 2021-11-22.
^ Cite error: The named reference Parmenter was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ "Fifty Years of Dispossession". Archived from the original on 2021-11-23. Retrieved 2021-11-22.
^ Soussi, Alasdir (2019-03-18). "The mixed legacy of Golda Meir, Israel's first female PM". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 2021-11-23. Retrieved 30 August 2023.

[Waxman-1] Waxman, D. (2006). The Pursuit of Peace and the Crisis of Israeli Identity: Defending/Defining the Nation. Palgrave Macmillan US. p. 50. ISBN 978-1-4039-8347-3. Archived from the original on 2023-02-28. Retrieved 2021-11-22. The denial of a separate and distinct Palestinian identity was most famously expressed in 1969 by then Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir when she stated: "There was no such thing as Palestinians. When was there an independent Palestinian people with a Palestinian state? ... It was not as though there was a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country from them. They did not exist."

[Gelvin-2] Gelvin, J.L.; Gelvin, P.H.J.L. (2005). The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War. Cambridge University Press. pp. 92–93. ISBN 978-0-521-85289-0. Archived from the original on 2021-12-14. Retrieved 2021-11-22.

[Parmenter-3] Cite error: The named reference Parmenter was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[4] "Fifty Years of Dispossession". Archived from the original on 2021-11-23. Retrieved 2021-11-22.

[5] Soussi, Alasdir (2019-03-18). "The mixed legacy of Golda Meir, Israel's first female PM". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 2021-11-23. Retrieved 30 August 2023.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]