Dozens of ministers gathered at a United Nations conference on Monday to urge the international community to work toward a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, with Israel and the United States boycotting the event.
The 193-member UN General Assembly decided in September last year that such a conference would be held in 2025. Hosted by France and Saudi Arabia, the conference was postponed in June due to the Israel-Iran war.
“We must ensure that it does not become another exercise in well-meaning rhetoric,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in opening remarks.
Days before the conference, French President Emmanuel Macron announced he would formally recognize Palestinian statehood in September, provoking strong opposition from Israel and the United States.
Luxembourg hinted Monday that it could follow France and recognize a Palestinian state in September, with the possibility that other countries could announce similar plans when the conference resumes Tuesday.
France is hoping Britain will follow its lead. More than 200 British members of parliament on Friday voiced support for the idea, but Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that recognition of a Palestinian state “must be part of a wider plan.”
For decades, most UN members have supported a two-state solution with Israel and a Palestinian state existing side-by-side.
However, the establishment of a Palestinian state and its would-be borders appear to be increasingly shrinking after more than 21 months of devastating war in Gaza sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 terror onslaught, the ongoing expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and Israeli officials declaring designs to annex the territory along with the Gaza Strip.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said it would be an “illusion to think that you can get to a lasting ceasefire without having an outline of what’s going to happen in Gaza after the end of the war and having a political horizon.”
Beyond advocating for encouraging the mass migration of Palestinians from Gaza, Israel has offered little detail of what it envisions for a post-war Strip and has pushed back against international calls for the Palestinian Authority to gain a foothold in the enclave.
Barrot told reporters at the UN that while there was international consensus that the time for a political solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict is now, words need to be followed up with action.
“The European Commission, on behalf of the EU, has to express its expectations and show the means that we can incentivize the Israeli government to hear this appeal,” he said.
The aim of the conference, Barrot said, was “to reverse the trend of what is happening in the region — mainly the erasure of the two-state solution, which has been for a long time the only solution that can bring peace and security in the region.”
He urged the European Commission to call on Israel to lift a financial blockade on 2 billion euros he says the Israeli government owes the Palestinian Authority; stop settlement building in the West Bank, which threatens the territorial integrity of a future Palestinian state; and end the “militarized” food delivery system in Gaza by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.. Critics of the GHF have denounced its distribution sites as “death traps,” with hundreds of Palestinians reportedly killed while trying to gather aid .
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said on Monday: “This conference does not promote a solution, but rather deepens the illusion. Instead of demanding the release of the hostages and working to dismantle Hamas’s reign of terror, the conference organizers are engaging in discussions and plenaries that are disconnected from reality.”
The Trump administration tore into the “unproductive and ill-timed” UN conference, calling it a “publicity stunt that comes in the middle of delicate diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.”
“Far from promoting peace, the conference will prolong the war, embolden Hamas and reward its obstruction and undermine real-world efforts to achieve peace,” the State Department said in a statement.
The US again called out Macron for saying he will recognize a Palestinian state in September, noting that the French announcement was welcomed by Hamas. Paris’s decision was also welcomed by the more moderate PA, which backs a two-state solution with Israel.
The US statement avoided criticizing Saudi Arabia, which helped engineer Macron’s announcement and is co-hosting this week’s UN conference. Trump has a close relationship with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has pledged to invest billions in the US economy.
The US statement did not express a broader position on the two-state solution. Trump officials have avoided weighing in on the matter, but have not criticized the Israeli government as it has taken steps in the West Bank aimed at foreclosing such a framework.
Beyond facilitating conditions for recognizing Palestine, French officials said the conference is focused on three other issues: Reforming the Palestinian Authority, disarming Hamas and excluding it from Palestinian public life, and normalizing relations between Israel and Arab states.
Saudi Arabia reiterated its stance that normalization with Israel “can only come through the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the UN event, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan said that stance was in keeping with the position outlined a year ago by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
“It is based on a strong conviction that only through the establishment of a Palestinian state, and only through addressing the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, can we have sustainable peace and real integration in the region,” Prince Faisal said.
Israeli officials have long insisted that Riyadh would be willing to settle for less, perhaps even mere lip service to a two-state solution in exchange for normalizing ties with Israel.
Saudi officials have pushed back against that notion, demanding that Israel establish an irreversible, time-bound pathway to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Israel, under the current government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has long rejected such a framework and has taken steps toward formally annexing West Bank lands that Palestinians hope would be part of their future state.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Muhammad Mustafa used the conference to reiterate Ramallah’s call for the release of all hostages and for Hamas to end its control of Gaza and transfer its weapons to the PA, during an address aimed at promoting a two-state solution.
“All countries bear the responsibility to act now to end the war against our people in Gaza and throughout Palestine, to ensure the release of all hostages and prisoners, and to ensure the withdrawal of the Israeli occupation forces,” he said.
Mustafa added that the PA is prepared to welcome and coordinate with an international Arab force that will help stabilize Gaza after the war.
While Israel has expressed openness to assistance from Arab countries like the United Arab Emirates, those countries have conditioned such support on the PA’s involvement, which Israel has long rejected, likening the Ramallah-based entity to Hamas.
“We must all work to reunify the Gaza Strip with the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, without occupation, siege, settlements, forced displacement or annexation,” Mustafa said. “We must rebuild Gaza with and for our people, end the occupation, achieve Palestinian independence, and implement the two-state solution, where Palestine and Israel live side by side, in peace and security, towards achieving regional peace, security, and prosperity.”