Netanyahu faces far-right backlash after US-backed statement on Palestinian state

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Nov 16 that Israel remained opposed to a Palestinian state after protests by far-right coalition allies over a US-backed statement indicating support for a pathway to Palestinian independence.

Mr Netanyahu spoke two days after Israel’s key ally US and many Muslim-majority nations endorsed a draft UN resolution backing President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, saying the process offered a route to Palestinian statehood.

The 15-member UN Security Council

began negotiations on Nov 7

on the draft, which would mandate Mr Trump’s proposal for a “Board of Peace” transitional administration in Gaza to address issues including post-war reconstruction and economic recovery.

Mr Trump’s 20-point plan

includes a clause saying that if there were reforms within the Palestinian Authority, “the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognise as the aspiration of the Palestinian people”.

That point infuriated Israeli far-right leaders who had opposed the

Trump-brokered October ceasefire

in Gaza, testing Mr Netanyahu’s awkward governing coalition of conservatives and ultra-nationalists.

On Nov 15, far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich called on Mr Netanyahu to denounce the idea of a Palestinian state. Mr Ben-Gvir threatened to leave the governing coalition if the Prime Minister did not act.

Mr Netanyahu said in a statement on Nov 16: “Our opposition to a Palestinian state in any territory has not changed. Gaza will be demilitarised and Hamas will be disarmed, the easy way or the hard way. I do not need affirmations, tweets or lectures from anyone.”

A far-right walkout could bring down Mr Netanyahu’s right-wing government well before the next election, which must be held by October 2026.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar also issued statements on social media platform X against a Palestinian state on Nov 16, without mentioning Mr Netanyahu.

Mr Trump’s Gaza plan ended major fighting between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas after two years of war that devastated the Palestinian enclave and triggered spillover conflicts across the Middle East.

Mr Netanyahu embraced Mr Trump’s plan during a visit to the White House in September, but until Nov 16, had made no new statement on the Palestinian statehood issue.

Ahead of his White House visit, Mr Netanyahu said he would respond to a number of major Western nations including France that formally recognised a Palestinian state in September, angering Israel, but has not followed up with any diplomatic actions.

Mr Smotrich had on Nov 15 accused Mr Netanyahu of failing to live up to his promise and called on him to formulate a response immediately: “Two months have passed in which you have chosen silence and political disgrace.”

He urged Mr Netanyahu to “make clear to the entire world (that) a Palestinian state will never arise on the lands of our homeland”.

Two years of intense Israeli bombardment and ground offensives in the Gaza Strip have killed more than 69,000 people, according to local health authorities. The war was touched off by

Hamas’ cross-border attack on Israel

on Oct 7, 2023, that killed around 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.

The ceasefire came into effect on Oct 10 although there have been repeated, though scattered,

outbreaks of violence

since then. REUTERS