Netanyahu Blasts Obama Over Claim Israel 'Took Land off People' Stating 'We're Jews in Judea'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rebuked former US President Barack Obama on 16 October 2026 over remarks made in Belfast. The exchange concerned Palestinian displacement during Israel's founding. In a video posted on X, Netanyahu rejected comparisons with European colonialism, declaring, 'We're Jews in Judea.'

Obama addressed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at a paid event in Belfast on 13 October, interviewed by journalist Susan McKay. Approximately 7,000 people attended, according to The Irish Times. Earlier that day, Queen's University Belfast awarded him an honorary doctorate at a separate ceremony.

Obama said Israel 'took land off people' during its establishment, before discussing Palestinian losses and demands for restitution. He also acknowledged the persecution of Jews in Europe and their search for refuge. Contemporary accounts differ over the precise wording of a further sentence about displacement.

Benjamin Netanyahu Rejects Obama's Colonial Comparison

'The Jewish people are not foreign occupiers in the land of our forefathers,' Netanyahu said. 'Our history is not a colonial enterprise. Our land is not stolen land.'

Netanyahu called the remarks 'regrettable' without naming Obama. He referred to Judea as part of the Jewish people's ancestral homeland, citing a connection lasting thousands of years.

He contrasted that history with Dutch colonial rule in Indonesia and Belgian rule in the Congo. His answer concentrated on Jewish historical identity rather than addressing each part of Obama's account of Palestinian displacement.

That displacement is independently documented. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees says it was responding to the needs of approximately 750,000 refugees when operations began in 1950. The agency defines Palestine refugees by their loss of homes and livelihoods during the 1948 conflict.

The figure describes the agency's initial refugee caseload, rather than a precise count of people expelled.

Obama's remarks concerned the consequences of Israel's establishment for Palestinians. Netanyahu's reply concerned whether Jewish nationhood could fairly be described as a colonial enterprise. Those questions overlap, but they are not identical.

The dispute extended to security. Obama warned against assuming military superiority could substitute for political concessions, arguing that such an approach had 'ceded moral ground'. He said it might work temporarily but would create long-term problems.

Obama also urged Palestinians to abandon strategies based on defeating Israel militarily. He criticised Hamas' attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, saying they had undermined prospects for meaningful political change.

Why Benjamin Netanyahu's Dispute With Obama Matters Before Israel's Election

Obama said approximately seven million Palestinians in the region were not going anywhere. He made a similar point about Israel's Jewish population, arguing that neither people could simply eliminate the other's presence.

He also urged Israelis to consider how future generations could live alongside their neighbours. At the university's separate honorary-degree ceremony, Obama praised Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement as an example of peace reached through negotiation.

Netanyahu offered a different explanation for the absence of peace. He argued that Israel's enemies refused to recognise Jewish statehood, regardless of the country's borders. 'A peace built on illusions will crash against the rocks of Middle Eastern reality,' he said.

Online reaction reflected the disagreement. In Reddit discussions, some users argued that Obama had overlooked Jewish historical claims, while others considered his comments a reasonable account of Palestinian grievances. Such exchanges offer no reliable measure of wider opinion.

There is history between the two leaders. In May 2011, Obama proposed using the lines that existed before the 1967 war, with mutually agreed land swaps, as a starting point for peace negotiations. Netanyahu publicly argued that returning to those lines would leave Israel vulnerable.

Their relations soured again in December 2016, when Washington abstained from a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning settlements in territory occupied since 1967.

Resolution 2334 passed by 14 votes to none, with the United States abstaining. The vote marked another disagreement between Netanyahu and the Obama administration over Israeli settlements and Palestinian territory.

Israel's next election is scheduled for 27 October. Netanyahu's video placed his defence of Jewish historical ties before voters during the final weeks of that campaign.