Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is firing back at the “stolen land” charge in an interview with Mark Levin on Fox News’ Life, Liberty & Levin, with clips released on October 17. He said Israelis are the indigenous people of the land and “not the Dutch in Indonesia,” describing Jews as people whose origin is Judea and arguing that Israel is a return to a historic homeland rather than a colonial enterprise. He also called Jews the original owners of the land, according to reports of the interview. In the clip circulating online, Netanyahu adds that Israel is not trying to drive anyone out. The remarks follow his video response a day earlier to former President Barack Obama, who said in Northern Ireland that Israelis took land from people during Israel’s founding.

Obama also said Palestinians understandably want their land back and that seven million Palestinians are not going anywhere, while acknowledging that Jews were persecuted for millennia, with Europe responsible for much of it, and sought refuge. Netanyahu called the remarks regrettable and said the Jewish people are not foreign occupiers in the land of their forefathers. He argued that the real obstacle to peace is not Israel but enemies of Israel and America who refuse to recognize a Jewish state within any borders. The question of who is indigenous is one of the most emotionally charged disputes in the conflict, because Palestinians and many critics argue that Palestinians have deep roots in the land and were displaced when Israel was founded, while Israelis point to Jewish ties spanning thousands of years. With both sides claiming history as their proof, the debate is unlikely to be settled by any one interview or speech.