In what may prove to be a major milestone in the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict, France will recognize Palestine as an independent state at the September United Nations General Assembly, President Emmanuel Macron announced late Thursday. While a majority of European countries and an overwhelming majority of the world's countries already recognize Palestine, France is significant in that it's a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and thus holds veto power. Fellow permanent members China and Russia recognize Palestine, while the UK and United States do not.
"Consistent with its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognize the State of Palestine," Macron said in an announcement posted to X that included a letter from Macron to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. He also reiterated his support for the "demilitarization of Hamas," and said Palestine must accept "its demilitarization and fully recogniz[e] Israel." However, his statement didn't convey that his September recognition would hinge on those factors.
Macron's surprise announcement prompted immediate condemnation from Israel and the United States, starting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
"We strongly condemn President Macron’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state next to Tel Aviv in the wake of the October 7 massacre. Such a move rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became. A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel — not to live in peace beside it. Let’s be clear: the Palestinians do not seek a state alongside Israel; they seek a state instead of Israel."
Netanyahu's grievance that recognition of a Palestinian state "rewards terror" is enormously hypocritical. After all, recognition of the State of Israel came after years of terror attacks perpetrated by Zionists against not only Palestinians but British people as well. These attacks included truck- and car-bombings, massacres, and the poisoning of wells with biological agents.
Relations between Israel and France were already strained. In May, after Macron called on fellow European countries to take a less accommodating stance toward Israel's war in Gaza if the humanitarian crisis continued, Netanyahu accused him of leading "a crusade against the Jewish state." In his May remarks that triggered Netanyahu, Macron told fellow European leaders that "if we abandon Gaza...we will kill our credibility," and said recognition of a Palestinian state -- with conditions attached -- was "not only a moral duty, but a political necessity."
Mr. Macron, like a growing number of world leaders, has been exasperated by Mr. Netanyahu’s refusal to end the war despite the fact that Gaza has largely been reduced to rubble and tens of thousands of its inhabitants killed. Mr. Netanyahu’s refusal to offer any plan for the future governance, security and reconstruction of Gaza after the fighting stops has also incensed the French president and other international leaders. - New York Times
Earlier this week, amid reporting of growing hunger in Gaza, and as the number of Palestinians killed at aid distribution points exceeded 1,000, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot called on Israel to finally let foreign press into Gaza, "to show what is happening there and to bear witness."
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio joined Netanyahu in denouncing Macron, but the social media reaction was overwhelmingly against him:
Palestinian ambassador to France Hala Abou-Hassira commended Macron's announcement of pending state recognition, saying it served notice to Israel and the United States that “One cannot continue to impose facts on the ground, facts that render a two-state solution impossible.” Many people believe the facts on the ground have already destroyed the possibility of a viable, contiguous Palestinian state. For example, the West Bank is positively riddled with Israeli settlements, and the settlers' violent campaign to intimidate Muslim and Christian Palestinians into abandoning their homes has significantly escalated following the Oct 7 Hamas invasion of Israel.
Meanwhile, while engaging in Gaza ceasefire talks with questionable sincerity, the Netanyahu government seems bent on significantly depopulating the territory. In addition to killing almost 60,000 residents, the IDF has systematically rendered most of the territory uninhabitable, and Netanyahu is pushing for other countries to accept Palestinians who want to "voluntarily" emigrate after all two million residents are herded into the southernmost end of the strip. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is among many members of Netanyahu's government who've called for Israeli control of Gaza and the establishment of Jewish settlements there. Speaking this week to a Knesset conference titled “The Gaza Riviera – From Vision to Reality," Smotrich -- one of the most powerful officials in Israel -- said, "We will occupy Gaza and make it an inseparable part of the State of Israel.”
For decades, Israeli leaders gave lip-service to the idea of a two-state solution, while the settlement project steadily destroyed the viability of the concept. If nothing else, Smotrich and other members of Netanyahu's extremist government can be lauded for their refreshing candor.