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Golda Meir expected Palestinian state alongside Israel – declassified report

According to transcripts of declassified conversations, Meir believed that there would eventually be a Palestinian state established next to Israel.

By World Israel News Staff

Late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir expected the formation of a Palestinian state that would include territory from Judea and Samaria, according to transcripts of recently declassified government discussions during her term as premier that were published by Haaretz.

Meir, who had declared that there was “no such thing as Palestinians,” privately expressed her belief that Palestinians would not give up their demand for their own country, nor would they agree to be absorbed into Israel or neighboring nations.

“My mind is open to it. I am ready to hear, and if there is a glimmer of hope for some independent Arab state in Samaria and Judea, and maybe Gaza too… If they call it Palestine, so be it,” Meir said during a 1970 meeting with senior members of her administration.

“It will be necessary to leave the Arabs of Judea and Samaria an option to earn self-determination at a later stage, if and when it suits us.”

While she did not express particular sympathy for Palestinians, she spoke about them establishing their own country as an inevitability.

“In other words, there will be another country [next to Israel],” she said.

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Meir explored the idea of different configurations for the potential country, suggesting that it could be part of a confederation with Jordan or Israel, or its own independent state. She even said she would be willing to negotiate with then-Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman and arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat, should he become head of the Palestinian state.

“If [Arafat] becomes prime minister of Jordan, we will negotiate with him. Arafat as the head of a terrorist organization — no. But if he becomes head of a government that he’ll represent as a Palestinian, then fine,” she said.

Meir also expressed concern that allocating land to Palestinians could open up a Pandora’s Box regarding claims to property in Israel.

“Why is Jaffa less Palestinian than any other place? And that was in their land. Will we give it to them? I’m prepared to go pray and to thank God that they declared war against us in 1948,” she said. “In the end, it was not us who declared war.”

Meir, who headed the left-wing Labor party, served as prime minister from 1969 to 1974.