There was no such thing as Palestinians

Statement by Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir Meir in 1969 " 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 . 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. It is considered to be a successor to the early Christian Zionist phrase " A land without a people for a people without a land ". Edward Said , a Palestinian American professor and activist, asserted that it was Meir's "most celebrated remark". Al Jazeera journalist Alasdair Soussi wrote that "Meir's jingoistic comments concerning Palestinians remain one of her defining – and most damning – legacies." Waxman, D. 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.