Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said that Saudi Arabia should "keep riding camels" if it asks for a Palestinian state in exchange for normalising ties with Israel.
"If Saudi Arabia tells us normalisation in exchange for a Palestinian state, friends, no thank you," Smotrich said at a conference in Israel on Thursday.
"Keep riding camels on the sand in the Saudi desert; we'll keep truly developing with an economy, a society, a state and all the great and wonderful things we know how to do,” Smotrich said, prompting sharp responses in Israel.
"The entity called the State of Israel is the State of Israel within all its borders, and it will never establish a Palestinian state," he said.
After drawing flak, Smotrich expressed regret for what he called his "unfortunate" remarks about Saudi Arabia, made in the context of normalising ties with Israel.
"My statement regarding Saudi Arabia was unfortunate, and I regret any offence it may have caused," Smotrich said in a video statement he posted on X.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid swiftly denounced the comments.
"To our friends in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, Smotrich does not represent the State of Israel,” Lapid posted on X in Arabic, later calling for him to apologise.
Former defence minister Benny Gantz, another opposition figure, said that Smotrich's comments "indicate ignorance and a lack of internalisation of his responsibility as a senior minister in the government and cabinet".
Smotrich, who lives in an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, has also repeatedly called for the Palestinian territory's annexation and for continuing the war in Gaza.
Smotrich also opposed last month’s Donald Trump-backed Gaza ceasefire.
In June, the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway announced sanctions against Smotrich for "repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities", and in July, the Netherlands and Slovenia followed.
In August, Smotrich said that the death of two million Palestinians in blockaded Gaza from hunger might be “justified and moral”.
