"There's no such thing as Palestinians — they're an invented people."
Their strongest version
Palestinian national identity crystallized in the 20th century, and 'Palestine' was an administrative region under the Ottomans, not a state.
The response
Every modern nation 'crystallized' recently — Italian identity postdates Italy's unification (1861), Israeli national identity is younger than Palestinian newspapers (Falastin, founded 1911). If recent consolidation invalidates peoplehood, no nation on earth passes the test, which is exactly why the argument is only ever aimed at Palestinians. The people are not a debating point: censuses, land deeds, family trees, village records, and the keys to demolished homes document continuous presence for centuries. When a sitting Israeli minister says this from a podium in Paris — Smotrich, March 2023, at a lectern draped in a map showing Israel covering Jordan — it isn't history, it's the predicate for removal: a people that doesn't exist can't be dispossessed. Name that function.