A moment of truth: that’s how French President Emmanuel Macron sees the recognition of a Palestinian state by France and other Western nations, with the hope to make it a landmark step in his push for peace in the Middle East as the devastating war in Gaza continues.
Weakened and unpopular at home, Macron is more than ever taking center stage in international talks. He is to formally declare France’s recognition of a Palestinian state on Monday at a United Nations conference in New York co-chaired with Saudi Arabia, as the UN General Assembly starts.
“We have to recognize the legitimate right of Palestinian people to have a state,” Macron said in an interview broadcast Thursday on Israeli television Channel 12. “If you don’t give a political perspective, in fact you just put them in the hands of those who are just proposing a security approach, an aggressive approach.”
The move comes as Israel this week launched its ground offensive in Gaza City which Macron denounced as “absolutely unacceptable” and “a huge mistake.”
It has angered Israel and the United States, which say it emboldens extremists and rewards Hamas, the group that led the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.
Other countries expected to follow Macron argues the move is the only way to bring peace and stability to the region as it puts back on the table a two-state solution, in which a Palestinian state would be created alongside Israel in most or all of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem — territories Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war.
More than 145 countries already recognize a Palestinian state, including more than a dozen in Europe.
The UK, Canada, Malta, Belgium and Luxembourg, among others, are expected to follow Macron’s lead in recognizing Palestinian statehood in the coming days.
The move aims to prompt “tangible, irreversible progress within a time frame that allows for a return to the two-state solution,” according to a top French diplomat. The official spoke anonymously in line with the French presidency’s customary practices.
“Our analysis shared by regional players, starting with Saudi Arabia, is that this (peace) process can only resume with the creation of a Palestinian state,” the official said.
Macron announced his decision at the end of July, arguing there's no time to wait. “The urgent thing today is that the war in Gaza stops and the civilian population is saved,” he wrote on social platform X.
Dismantlement of Hamas
France insists the creation of a Palestinian state implies the dismantlement of Hamas. In July, Arab League nations agreed that “Hamas must end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority” as part of the New York Declaration at the UN
Macron insisted that he wasn't acting to meet Hamas' expectations.
"Hamas is just obsessed by destroying Israel,” Macron told US television network CBS in an interview recorded on Thursday. “But I recognize the legitimacy of so many Palestinian people who want a state ... and we shouldn’t push them toward Hamas.”
On Friday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot tied Macron’s diplomatic efforts to the arrest of a key Palestinian suspect in a 1982 terror attack in Paris, adding the recognition of a Palestinian state “will allow us to seek the extradition.”
Macron’s push has contributed to a sharp souring of his relationship with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump’s ambassador to France, Charles Kushner, who accused him of fueling violence.
Macron, with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, is also spearheading a diplomatic drive to increase support for Ukraine. They joined President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for talks with Trump last month.
The French leader recently announced that 26 of Ukraine’s allies have pledged to deploy troops as a “reassurance force” for the war-torn country once fighting ends in the conflict with Russia.
Strong reactions in France
The move to recognize a Palestinian state has prompted waves of reaction in France, which is home to Europe’s largest Jewish and Muslim populations.
The Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) called it “a moral failing, a diplomatic error, and a political danger,” fearing it would further fuel antisemitism amid a sharp rise in reported incidents since the Oct. 7 attacks and ensuing war in Gaza.
Weekly pro-Palestinian protests are being staged in Paris and other French cities.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, whose National Rally party is leading the polls, accused Macron of “doing it purely for electoral reasons.”
France’s left-wing opposition welcomed Macron’s move. The head of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, suggested mayors should raise the Palestinian flag over town halls on Monday.
On Friday, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau asked prefects, who represent the government locally, to oppose such a gesture, invoking the principle of neutrality of public services.
“There are enough divisive issues in the country without importing the conflict in the Middle East,” Retailleau wrote on X.
With less than two years left in office, Macron also has his legacy in mind.
International politics has become his main focus since prospects at home turned gloomy after he dissolved the National Assembly last year, leading to a hung parliament.
The French leader's name has been the focus of angry slogans in anti-government protests, with many pointing to him as responsible for France’s political instability, rising prices and spiraling deficit.
