French President Emmanuel Macron says France will recognize Palestine as a state Thursday that France will recognize Palestine as a state, citing the urgent need to end the war in Gaza and alleviate the humanitarian crisis. The move, to be formalized at the UN General Assembly in September, marks a major shift by one of Europe’s most influential nations amid mounting global outrage over conditions in Gaza.
French President Macron says France will recognize Palestine as a state as a state, amid snowballing global anger over people starving in Gaza.
Macron said in a post on X that he will formalize the decision at the United Nations General Assembly in September. “The urgent thing today is that the war in Gaza stops and the civilian population is saved.″
The French president offered support for Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks and frequently speaks out against antisemitism, but he has grown increasingly frustrated about Israel’s war in Gaza, especially in recent months.
“Given its historic commitment to a just and sustainable peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognize the state of Palestine,” Macron posted. ″Peace is possible.”
Three quarters of UN states support Palestinian state
France is the biggest and most powerful European country to recognize Palestine. According to an AFP tally, at least 142 countries out of the 193 UN members have now recognised or plan to recognise a Palestinian state, though Israel and the United States strongly oppose recognition. x
They include most Middle Eastern, African, Latin American and Asian countries, but not the United States, Canada, most of western Europe, Australia, Japan or South Korea.
France has Europe’s largest Jewish population and the largest Muslim population in western Europe, and fighting in the Middle East often spills over into protests or other tensions in France.
The Israeli foreign ministry had no immediate comment.
France’s foreign minister is co-hosting a conference at the UN next week about a two-state solution. Last month, Macron expressed his “determination to recognize the state of Palestine”, and he has pushed for a broader movement toward a two-state solution, in parallel with recognition of Israel and its right to defend itself.
Thursday’s announcement came soon after the US cut short Gaza ceasefire talks in Qatar, saying Hamas wasn’t showing good faith.
Momentum has been building against Israel in recent days. Earlier this week, France and more than two dozen mostly European countries condemned Israel’s restrictions on aid shipments into the territory and the killings of hundreds of Palestinians trying to reach food.
The Palestinians seek an independent state in the occupied West Bank, annexed East Jerusalem and Gaza, territories Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel’s government and most of its political class have long been opposed to Palestinian statehood and now say that it would reward militants after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
Israel annexed East Jerusalem shortly after the 1967 war and considers it part of its capital. In the West Bank, it has built scores of settlements, some resembling sprawling suburbs, that are now home to over 500,000 Jewish settlers with Israeli citizenship. The territory’s 3 million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority exercising limited autonomy in population centres.
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