French President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday that France will recognize Palestine 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,” he posted.
The French president offered support for Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack on Israel 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.”
He also posted a letter he sent to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas about the decision.
In a statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel “strongly” condemned the move and that it “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,” he said.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States “strongly rejects [Macron’s] plan to recognize a Palestinian state” at the U.N. General Assembly, writing Thursday on X: “This reckless decision only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace. It is a slap in the face to the victims of October 7th.”
France is the biggest and most powerful European country to recognize Palestine. More than 140 countries recognize a Palestinian state, however, the U.S. is not among them.
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.
France’s foreign minister is co-hosting a conference at the U.N. 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 U.S. 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 terrorists 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 that are now home to more than 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 centers.
