Speaking in an interview with a French broadcaster, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France will soon recognize a Palestinian state, possibly as soon as June.
France has long facilitated a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, even following the 7 October 2023 Palestinian militant group Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. Formal French recognition of a Palestinian state would nonetheless be a policy shift and potentially put a strain on relations with Israel, which contends that other countries’ recognitions of such a state are premature.
Macron expressed his hope that by acknowledging Palestinian statehood at a June conference co-hosted by France and Saudi Arabia, and by advocating for a two-state solution, those participants who do not officially recognize Israel would be encouraged to do so.
“We must move toward recognition, and we will do so in the coming months,” said the French president. “I’m not doing it for unity, or to please this or that person. I’m doing it because at some point it will be fair,” he stated.
Macron’s statement comes after Israel resumed shelling of the Gaza Strip in January, breaking a two-month lull and bringing down ceasefire talks with Hamas. Israel has since also halted humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory.
Israel’s Gaza conflict was the result of an October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel by Hamas killing 1,200 people and kidnapping 250 others. Hamas-controlled Gaza’s Health Ministry indicates that over 50,000 were killed since the conflict started, numbers both military and civilian deaths.
The Israeli-Palestinian dispute deeply resonates in France since there is both Europe’s biggest Jewish community and its biggest Muslim minority. Additionally, there is an extensive French-speaking community in Israel with close linkages to France.
France has always been an advocate of the two-state solution but has shrugged off calls to recognize a Palestinian state, always saying Paris will only do that if it furthered the peace process. Macron made the comment at the end of a three-day trip to Egypt, after visiting a hospital where Palestinians in the city of El Arish, on the border with Gaza, were receiving treatment.
“I want to believe in peace; today the conflict has escalated and it’s horrific … Since March 2, there’s nothing entering [the Gaza Strip] — no water, no food, no medicine, and none of the wounded are being evacuated,” Macron said.
Macron’s choice is likely to provoke Israel and trigger a backlash from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who claims that recognizing Palestinian statehood at this time is essentially rewarding terrorism.
“A ‘unilateral recognition’ of an imaginary Palestinian state, by any nation, in the reality that we all know, will be a reward for terror and a boost for Hamas. These kinds of moves will not bring peace, security, and stability in our region any closer — but the opposite: they only drive them further away,” Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Gideon Sa’ar said on X.
The French Jewish umbrella organization Crif on Thursday condemned Macron’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state, calling it “an unacceptable political triumph” for Hamas while dozens of Israeli hostages are still being held in Gaza.
