Faced with criticism, France defends its decision to recognize the State of Palestine

Paris does not reward the Palestinian Islamist movement, but he “Give wrong”On Friday said Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot.

“Hamas has always refused the solution to two states. By recognizing Palestine, France proves this terrorist movement wrong. It gives reason to the peace camp against that of the war”he wrote on X.

The announcement made Thursday evening by President Emmanuel Macron that he will formally recognize a State of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly in September in New York, angered Israel, which denounced a “Terror reward”, In reference to the unprecedented attack in Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Country of the G7 and permanent member of the UN Security Council, France will join in September a group of at least 142 other states which recognized a Palestinian State, according to an AFP count.

“Let’s be clear: the Palestinians do not seek to obtain a state alongside Israel, they seek a state in the place of Israel”castigated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Close ally of Israel, the United States also have “firmly” rejected this decision “reckless” Who “only serves Hamas propaganda and makes the peace process go back”according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The United States Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, quipped Macron on Friday had not specified where the future Palestinian state would be located. “I can now reveal exclusively that France will offer the Côte d’Azur”, he said on X.

Mr. Macron also faces criticism in France, on the part of the right and the extreme right, whose leader Marine Le Pen estimated that “Recognizing a Palestinian state today is to recognize a Hamas state and therefore a terrorist state”.

The Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) denounced “A moral fault, a diplomatic error and a political danger”. France is home to the first Jewish community in Europe, with nearly 500,000 people (less than 1% of the population).

“Emergency interview”

This announcement appears to be a French attempt to move the lines, while discussions for a ceasefire are patina, after 21 months of a war which plunged Gaza into a disastrous humanitarian situation.

Since the attack on October 7, which killed 1,219 people on the Israeli side, according to an AFP count made from official data, Israel has been leading military reprisals which left 59,587 dead in Gaza, according to data from the Ministry of Health in Gaza, deemed reliable by the UN.

Israel faces increasing international pressure to authorize massive access to humanitarian aid in the Palestinian territory, where a “grande proportion” of the population “Dies with hunger”, According to the boss of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

A quarter of children under the age of five and pregnant and breastfeeding women examined last week by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Gaza suffer from malnutrition, said the NGO on Friday, denouncing “The deliberate use of hunger as a weapon of war”.

British leaders Keir Starmer, French Emmanuel Macron and German Friedrich Merz must hold one on Friday “Emergency interview”scheduled before France’s announcement, to see how “Stop the massacres and provide the population with the food it is desperately needing.”

Divisions

If Ireland, Spain, Norway and Slovenia acted the recognition of the State of Palestine in 2024, Europeans remain divided on this issue. Berlin repeated Friday “Do not consider recognizing a short -term Palestinian state”.

France will co -reside in September with Saudi Arabia an international conference at the level of heads of state and government to try to relaunch the so -called solution “to two states”, Palestinian and Israeli.

Paris “will mobilize all those of its international partners who wish to take part”wrote Emmanuel Macron on Friday in a letter to the president of the Palestinian authority Mahmoud Abbas.

A ministerial meeting on the subject is held on Monday and Tuesday in New York.