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Smotrich in Paris: The Map That Included Jordan (2023)

On 19 March 2023, three months after he became Israel's finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich stood at a podium in Paris and denied that the Palestinian people exist. The podium was draped with a map of "Greater Israel" that took in not only Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, but the whole Kingdom of Jordan. It was the first time a sitting senior minister had been seen with that map, and it went around the world.

What he said​

In the speech he said "there's no such thing as the Palestinian people" and "The Palestinian people is an invention" (Times of Israel, 20 March 2023). The fact-checking site Misbar rendered more of it: "There is no such thing as a Palestinian people; this is the truth that must be heard in the White House," and "The Palestinian people are nothing but an invention less than 100 years old," adding that the "real Palestinians" were Jews (Misbar, 3 December 2024).

The map​

The map on the podium showed "Greater Israel" including the territory of modern Jordan, in line with the old claim of the Revisionist Zionists that the Jordan River has "two banks" and both belong to the Jewish state (see Jabotinsky and "Both Banks of the Jordan"). Misbar described it as a map "including all of Palestine and Jordan" bearing the emblem of the Irgun, the pre-state militia later led by Menachem Begin, whose emblem showed a rifle over both banks with the words "Only thus." A photograph of Smotrich behind the map, posted by Censored Men in December 2023, reached 3.2 million views (Censored Men on X, 21 December 2023).

His spokesperson blamed the event's organizers for the map, according to Wikipedia's account (Wikipedia, Greater Israel). As one critic answered: "Official walkbacks don't erase the act. A top minister chose a 'Greater Israel' map engulfing Jordan" (Rebel-Dog, in a thread, 22 September 2026). He spoke from it, and he was not asked to leave the government.

Jordan's answer​

Jordan's Foreign Ministry summoned Israel's ambassador, calling the act "reckless incitement and a violation of international norms and the Jordanian Peace Treaty." Spokesman Sinan Majali said Amman "will take all necessary political and legal measures" (Anadolu via usmuslims.com, 20 March 2023). The United States called the speech "concerning and dangerous," and France joined the condemnations (Times of Israel).

Israel's reassurance, and what came after​

Israel's Foreign Ministry said: "Israel is committed to the 1994 peace agreement with Jordan. There has been no change in the position of the State of Israel, which recognizes the territorial integrity of the Hashemite Kingdom." National security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi phoned Jordan's foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, to assure him "of the commitment the Government of Israel has to uphold the peace treaty" (PLF Pakistan, 21 March 2023).

The reassurance went to Amman. The minister stayed. Over the next three years Smotrich went on to call for Jerusalem to expand "to Damascus" (2024), for the Litani River to be Israel's border (2026), and for the "full biblical extent" of the Land of Israel (2026). In December 2025 Israel, according to a Maariv report relayed on Threads, planned to withhold 50 million cubic meters of water owed to Jordan under the same 1994 treaty (Threads, 10 December 2025); by July 2026 Israel's refusal to extend the water agreement was being called "a 'stab in the back'" (JEWISHLIVESMATTER on X, 9 July 2026).

Ynet later reported that Israel's own Foreign Ministry staff listed the Paris speech and map among the events that were "a nail in the coffin of Israeli legitimacy in Judea and Samaria" (Shaiel Ben-Ephraim on X, 25 August 2026).

Evidence rating for "Israel's finance minister spoke from a podium bearing a map that included Jordan and denied the Palestinian people exist": CONFIRMED.

Status: Bezalel Smotrich, Sinan Majali, Tzachi Hanegbi, and Ayman Safadi are alive. Menachem Begin is deceased (1992). Nothing on this page states that any living person committed a crime.

Sources​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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