PARIS — France has been pushing European countries including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Belgium to jointly recognize the state of Palestine at a United Nations conference next month.
French President Emmanuel Macron had hoped to use the event to jumpstart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians by having several European states officially recognize Palestinian statehood and some Middle Eastern states officially recognize Israel.
“The two-state solution is more necessary than ever but it has been more undermined than ever due to the war, the displacement [of Palestinians] and the violence of extremist settlers,” said a French diplomat who, like others quoted in this piece, was granted anonymity for protocol reasons.
But with the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza caused by Israel’s bombing campaign and its three-month-long blockade severely restricting access to food, water and medicine for civilians, Paris has been forced to downgrade expectations of the conference it is co-hosting with Saudi Arabia.
“The Arab nations, they want sanctions not statehood,” said a European diplomat.
The spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said last week the U.K. was ready to work with allies and countries in the region to “do what we can to support the foundations of Palestinian statehood.”
France and the U.K. would be the first G7 nations to recognize the state of Palestine, a decades-long demand from the Palestinians. Israel has repeatedly criticized French diplomatic efforts, arguing they legitimize the militant group Hamas and effectively reward the group for the October 2023 terror attack. The Israeli government is likely to say the same thing about Palestinian recognition by Paris and London.
More 140 UN member states recognize the Palestine state, with Spain, Ireland and Norway joining the ranks last year. Many North African and Middle Eastern countries do not recognize Israel.
Macron’s pivot
For years, French officials have said Paris was on the brink of recognizing the Palestinian statehood, but always cautioning it would only make that move if it advances the peace process.
In April, Macron said that time had come to “move toward recognition” and participate in a collective process in which both Israel and a Palestinian state were recognized.
But that never happened.
Now, with the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip deepening, formally recognizing a Palestinian state would look more like a reprimand, as opposed to step toward peace, explained Michel Duclos, a former ambassador to Syria and fellow at the Institut Montaigne.
“It would constitute a condemnation of Israel,” he said.
However, Duclos said European recognition of the Palestinian territories could “encourage Arab nations to define their conditions for normalizing relations with Israel.” The French diplomat quoted above said France was hoping Middle Eastern states would still take “steps” toward normalization at the conference, which is slated to run June 17 to 20 in New York.
In the end, stopping the violence in the Gaza Strip and to a lesser extent, the West Bank, depends on what the United States, Israel’s closest ally and largest military backer, decides to do. And while European officials note a shift in U.S. President Donald Trump’s attitude toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there’s little sign yet Washington is ready to recognize a Palestinian state.
“It may all be a damp squib,” said the European official.
Esther Webber contributed to this report.
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