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French President Emmanuel Macron has said his country plans to recognise a Palestinian state within months – and could make the move as soon as June at a UN conference in New York.
“We must move towards recognition, and we will do so in the coming months,” Mr Macron told France 5 television after his visit to Egypt this week. “Our aim is to chair this conference with Saudi Arabia in June, where we could finalise this movement of mutual recognition by several parties,” he added.
France has long championed a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, including after the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas-led militants on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza. About 1,200 people were killed in attacks on Israeli communities, and around 240 abducted. Israel's subsequent strikes and ground offensive in Gaza have killed more than 50,500 people.
Nearly 150 countries recognise a Palestinian state. In May 2024, Ireland, Norway and Spain announced recognition, followed by Slovenia in June, in moves partly fuelled by condemnation of Israel's bombardment of the enclave.
But France would be the biggest European power to recognise a Palestinian state, a move the US has long resisted.
“I will do it because I believe that at some point it will be right and because I also want to participate in a collective dynamic, which must also allow all those who defend Palestine to recognise Israel in turn, which many of them do not do,” Mr Macron said.
Such recognition would allow France “to be clear in our fight against those who deny Israel's right to exist – which is the case with Iran – and to commit ourselves to collective security in the region”, he added.
The Israel-Palestine crisis is a sensitive topic in France, which recorded a surge of anti-Semitic attacks after the Hamas-led attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023.
"France is the country in Europe with the largest Jewish community and ... we are one of the countries in Europe with the most citizens of Muslim faith," Mr Macron said. "There were all the recipes for us to explode after October 7."
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar denounced Mr Macron's announcement, saying it would be a "prize" for terrorism.
"A unilateral recognition of a fictional Palestinian state, by any country, in the reality that we all know, will be a prize for terror and a boost for Hamas," Mr Saar said on X. "These kind of actions will not bring peace, security and stability in our region closer - but the opposite: they only push them further away."
In Egypt, Mr Macron held summit talks with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Jordan's King Abdullah II and also made clear he was strongly opposed to any displacement or annexation in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. On a trip to Al Arish, a transit point for international assistance to Gaza, Mr Macron called for “the resumption of humanitarian aid as quickly as possible”, saying the situation was “intolerable”.
"The reality is that you have two million people who are trapped," he added. "Two million, after months and months of bombings and a terrible war during which tens of thousands of people lost their lives."
US President Donald Trump has suggested turning Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East”, with its Palestinians moved elsewhere – a suggestion that has sparked condemnation. During his trip to Egypt, the French President said the Gaza Strip was “not a real estate project”.
"If it were as simple as a real estate project and acquiring units in buildings, there would never have been a war," Mr Macron said. “Simplistic thinking sometimes doesn't help. Perhaps it would be wonderful if one day it developed in an extraordinary way, but our responsibility is to save lives, restore peace and negotiate a political framework.”
