Netanyahu rejects Palestinian state after US-backed plan sparks far-right fury

Israel’s prime minister has doubled down on rejecting Palestinian statehood, moving to calm a revolt inside his own far-right coalition after Washington backed a UN draft that gestures, however cautiously, towards Palestinian independence.

Benjamin Netanyahu issued the statement on Sunday, days after the United States joined several Muslim-majority countries in supporting a draft UN resolution aligned with President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan. Supporters say the proposal sketches a pathway, however limited, towards recognising Palestinian aspirations for self-determination.

The UN Security Council began negotiating the text on 7 November. The draft would enshrine Trump’s “Board of Peace” scheme, a transitional authority meant to oversee post-war reconstruction and economic recovery in Gaza, even as the enclave remains under devastating Israeli siege.

Trump’s 20-point outline includes a conditional reference to Palestinian statehood, noting that if the Palestinian Authority enacted reforms, “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 single line enraged Israel’s ultra-nationalist ministers, many of whom opposed the Trump-brokered ceasefire that paused the genocide in October.

The clause triggered a familiar crisis inside Netanyahu’s coalition, where far-right leaders Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich demanded an immediate public rejection of any talk of a Palestinian state. Ben-Gvir even threatened to collapse the government unless Netanyahu complied.

Netanyahu responded on Sunday with a blunt declaration meant to reassure his hardline allies. “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,” he said.

A far-right pullout would topple Netanyahu’s fragile governing bloc long before the next scheduled election in October 2026.