Mike Huckabee once said, “There really is no such thing as a Palestinian.”

CNN
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Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, whom President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday as his choice for U.S. ambassador to Israel, previously argued that there is no such thing as a Palestinian.

Huckabee, who has been a strong defender of Israel throughout his career, made the statement during his 2008 presidential campaign, claiming that Palestinian identity was “a political tool to try to take land away from Israel.”

In a video recorded by CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski during Huckabee’s 2015 presidential bid, Huckabee suggested that if a Palestinian state were established, it should be created in neighboring countries such as Egypt, Syria or Jordan, rather than within Israel’s borders.

“Basically, there really is no such thing as a Palestinian – I have to be careful when I say this because people will get really upset – there really is no such thing as a Palestinian,” Huckabee said at a campaign stop in Massachusetts in 2008 he spoke to two people, Orthodox Jewish men. “Doesn’t exist.”

When one of the men asked about the possibility of a Palestinian state outside of Israel, Huckabee replied that he thought it was a better option.

“There are Arabs and Persians,” Huckabee continued during his 2008 appearance. “And that’s so complex. But there really is no such thing. This was a political tool to take land away from Israel.”

In the video previously published by BuzzFeed, Huckabee added that he believes a Palestinian state could emerge from land in Egypt, Syria or Jordan.

“My point is, if that’s the problem, if it’s real estate, if you look at a map and say how much Israel has and how much the Arab states own, then there’s plenty of land,” he said.

Huckabee reiterated this point in an interview on Israeli television in 2015, in which he argued that a two-state solution was “irrational and unworkable” and said “outside Israel in the “rest of the world” there is plenty of land for a Palestinian.” Condition.

CNN reached out to Huckabee and the Trump transition team for comment on whether Huckabee stands by his comments.