(Bloomberg) — President Emmanuel Macron said France would recognize a Palestinian state in September, prompting a backlash from the US and Israel.
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“In keeping 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 a social media post late Thursday.
The official announcement will be made on the sidelines of the next annual gathering of the United Nations General Assembly, in New York, he added.
Macron’s decision was described as “reckless” by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Still, it comes amid growing pressure on Israel over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, particularly from European and Arab states.
Macron’s announcement led to a harsh response from Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who rejects Palestinian statehood. The Israeli government argues its offensive in Gaza is necessary to topple and disarm Hamas after the militant group killed 1,200 people and abducted 250 in the Oct. 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel. Of the hostages, 50 are still in Gaza, with roughly 20 thought by Israel to still be alive.
Talks over a ceasefire in Gaza stalled again on Thursday, with the US and Israel withdrawing their negotiating teams from Qatar. They were there holding indirect negotiations with Hamas.
“We strongly condemn President Macron’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state next to Tel Aviv in the wake of the Oct. 7 massacre,” Netanyahu said in a social media posting. “Such a move rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became.”
France’s move “only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace,” Rubio said. “It is a slap in the face to the victims of October 7th.”
Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the US and the European Union.
Macron, as well as several other world leaders, is increasingly angered by the Israeli military’s continued attacks in Gaza and Netanyahu’s restrictions on allowing humanitarian aid to enter the territory, with reports of emaciated babies, children crammed into soup queues and men tussling over bags of flour.
“The 2.1 million people trapped in the war zone that is Gaza are facing yet another killer on top of bombs and bullets: starvation,” the World Health Organization’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said this week.
New York Conference
Macron has said since last year that France, home to both the largest Jewish and Muslim communities in Europe, could recognize a Palestinian state. He even tried to organize a conference with Saudi Arabia in New York in June to do so, before canceling it following missile strikes between Israel and Iran.
French and Saudi officials are now expected to lead a conference to discuss Palestinian statehood next week in New York. The US won’t attend, the State Department said Thursday.
The leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, was informed of France’s decision via a letter from Macron, the French foreign ministry said.
While many Western countries are critical of Israel for its actions against civilians in Gaza, no other member of the Group of Seven has taken the step of recognizing Palestine as a nation. Spain, Ireland and Norway are among Western countries that do recognize Palestine.
Macron’s announcement may put pressure on UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who is facing a push from senior members of his own government, to follow suit.
It’s unclear if a potential backlash from the Trump administration would make Starmer wary of recognizing a Palestinian state.
The British leader said Thursday that “statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people” and a ceasefire would put the UK “on a path” to recognition, but stopped short of committing to a timeframe.
For years the UK has formally supported a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but only after negotiations between the two sides. That’s the same stance that many other countries in the West have taken.
Palestinians hope to form a nation comprising Gaza and the larger territory of the West Bank, which together have more than 5 million people.
Decades of international peacemaking efforts have hinged on the idea of Palestinian statehood in those areas, which Israel captured in the 1967 Six Day war. The last major talks stalled in 2014.
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