President Macron says France will recognise Palestine as a state
'The urgent thing today is that the war in Gaza stops and the civilian population is saved,″ he added.
Fidèle à son engagement historique pour une paix juste et durable au Proche-Orient, j'ai décidé que la France reconnaîtra l'État de Palestine.
J'en ferai l'annonce solennelle à l'Assemblée générale des Nations unies, au mois de septembre prochain.… pic.twitter.com/7yQLkqoFWC
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) July 24, 2025
The French president offered support for Israel after the October 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.
'We strongly condemn President Macron's decision,' Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
'Such a move 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.'
The Palestinian Authority welcomed it. A letter announcing the move was presented on Thursday to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Jerusalem.
'We express our thanks and appreciation' to Mr Macron, Hussein Al Sheikh, the PLO's vice president under Mr Abbas, posted.
'This position reflects France's commitment to international law and its support for the Palestinian people's rights to self-determination.'
France is the biggest and most powerful European country to recognise Palestine. More than 140 countries recognise a Palestinian state, including more than a dozen in Europe.
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 UN next week about a two-state solution.
Last month, Mr Macron expressed his 'determination to recognise 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 was not 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' 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 more than 500,000 Jewish settlers with Israeli citizenship.
The territory's three million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority exercising limited autonomy in population centres.
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