{"id":89607,"date":"2025-07-24T21:12:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T21:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/89607\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T21:12:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T21:12:14","slug":"french-president-macron-says-france-will-recognize-palestine-as-a-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/89607\/","title":{"rendered":"French President Macron says France will recognize Palestine as a state"},"content":{"rendered":"

PARIS (AP) \u2014 French President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday that France will recognize Palestine<\/a> as a state, in a bold diplomatic move amid snowballing global anger over people starving in Gaza. Israel denounced the decision.<\/p>\n

Macron said in a post on X that he will formalize the decision at the United Nations General Assembly in September. \u201cThe urgent thing today is that the war in Gaza stops and the civilian population is saved,\u2019’ he wrote.<\/p>\n

The mostly symbolic move puts added diplomatic pressure on Israel as the war and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip<\/a> rage. France is now the biggest Western power to recognize Palestine, and the move could pave the way for other countries to do the same. More than 140 countries recognize a Palestinian state, including more than a dozen in Europe.<\/p>\n

The Palestinians seek an independent state in the occupied West Bank<\/a>, annexed east Jerusalem and Gaza, territories Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel\u2019s government and most of its political class have long been opposed to Palestinian statehood and now say that it would reward militants after Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7, 2023, attack.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2019We strongly condemn President Macron\u2019s decision,\u2019’ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. \u2018\u2019Such 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 \u2014 not to live in peace beside it.\u2019’<\/p>\n

The Palestinian Authority welcomed it. A letter announcing the move was presented Thursday to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2019We express our thanks and appreciation\u2019\u2019 to Macron, Hussein Al Sheikh, the PLO\u2019s vice president under Abbas, posted. \u2018\u2019This position reflects France\u2019s commitment to international law and its support for the Palestinian people\u2019s rights to self-determination.\u2019’<\/p>\n

There was no immediate reaction from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

With Europe\u2019s largest Jewish population and the largest Muslim population in western Europe, France has often seen fighting in the Middle East spill over into protests or other tensions at home. <\/p>\n

The French president offered support for Israel after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and frequently speaks out against antisemitism, but he has grown increasingly frustrated about Israel\u2019s war in Gaza.<\/p>\n

\u2033Given its historic commitment to a just and sustainable peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognize the state of Palestine,\u2019’ Macron posted. \u2033Peace is possible.\u2019’<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s announcement came soon after the U.S. cut short Gaza ceasefire talks in Qatar, saying Hamas wasn\u2019t showing good faith.<\/p>\n

It also came days before France and Saudi Arabia are co-hosting a conference at the U.N. next week about a two-state solution. Last month, Macron expressed his \u201cdetermination to recognize the state of Palestine,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Momentum has been building against Israel in recent days. Earlier this week, France and more than two dozen mostly European countries condemned<\/a> Israel\u2019s restrictions on aid shipments into the territory and the killings of hundreds of Palestinians trying to reach food.<\/p>\n

Macron will join the leaders of Britain and Germany for emergency talks Friday on Gaza, how to get food to the hungry and how to stop fighting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are clear that statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people. A ceasefire will put us on a path to the recognition of a Palestinian state and a two-state solution which guarantees peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis,\u2019’ British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in announcing the call. \u201cThe suffering and starvation unfolding in Gaza is unspeakable and indefensible.\u2019’<\/p>\n

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 over 500,000 Jewish settlers with Israeli citizenship. The territory\u2019s 3 million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority exercising limited autonomy in population centers.<\/p>\n

The last serious peace talks broke down in 2009, when Netanyahu returned to power. Most of the international community considers the establishment of a viable Palestinian state alongside Israel to be the only realistic solution to the century-old conflict. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Joe Federman in Jerusalem and Joseph Krauss in Ottawa, Ontario contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS (AP) \u2014 French President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday that France will recognize Palestine as a state, in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":89608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[97,12648,372,69,8703,156,40783,4526,57,4527,3497,59768,3464,99,3462,373,17723,59767,3463,50,9598,80,96,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-89607","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","9":"tag-antisemitism","10":"tag-benjamin-netanyahu","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-emmanuel-macron","13":"tag-france","14":"tag-france-government","15":"tag-gaza-strip","16":"tag-general-news","17":"tag-hamas","18":"tag-humanitarian-crises","19":"tag-hussein-al-sheikh","20":"tag-international-agreements","21":"tag-israel","22":"tag-israel-government","23":"tag-israel-hamas-war","24":"tag-keir-starmer","25":"tag-mahmoud-abbas","26":"tag-mideast-wars","27":"tag-news","28":"tag-palestinian-territories-government","29":"tag-politics","30":"tag-war-and-unrest","31":"tag-world","32":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114910274860229628","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}