Ramallah, March 23 : Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye has urged the international community to stop Israeli officials from inciting racism against the Palestinians.

Ishtaye made the remarks during a meeting with the French Consul General in Jerusalem, Rene Trokaz, at the Prime Minister's office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, according to an official statement.  Ishtaye called on France and other countries "to take measures to stop the incitement by extremist Israeli officials against the Palestinian people, and not give them platforms to express their racism", Xinhua news agency quoted the statement as saying.  The Prime Minister also welcomed the statement of the French Foreign Ministry, which denounced the claims of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in Paris in which he denied the existence of the Palestinian people.  Smotrich, who heads the far-right Religious Zionism Party, drew condemnation after he claimed that "there is no such thing as a Palestinian people" in a speech he gave on Sunday at a conference in France.