The Israel Ambassador to France, Joshua Zarka denounced on BFMTV a “historical error” after the announcement, by Emmanuel Macron, of the next recognition by France of the State of Palestine.
Israel’s ambassador to France, Joshua Zarka denounces a “historical error” after the announcement, by Emmanuel Macron, of the next recognition by France of the State of Palestine.
“This is a historical error at all levels,” he said on BFMTV this Friday, July 25. The ambassador sees it “a message that says in Hamas, continue to do what you do, do not make peace” and “continue this terrible war”.
“It is a reasoning that I do not understand,” he castigated.
Israel launched in 2023 an offensive in Gaza in retaliation for the attack by Hamas on October 7 which led to the death of 1,219 people, mainly civilians. Israeli reprisals left 59,587 people dead in Gaza, mainly civilians, according to data from the Ministry of Health in Gaza, deemed reliable by the UN.
“The vast majority of Israelis say that we must live in peace with the Palestinians. What are the conditions that will allow us to live in peace with the Palestinians? It will be up to us and to the Palestinians to decide directly, in negotiations. It will not be to France, nor to Mr. Macron, to decide,” said Joshua Zarka this Friday. “Instead of helping peace, he pushed it back,” he added.
Recognition in September
Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday that France will recognize the State of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly in September in New York. The French decision “rewards terror”, castigated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in reference to the unprecedented attack in Hamas on the south of Israel on October 7, 2023. “Let’s be clear: the Palestinians do not seek to obtain a State alongside Israel, they are looking for a state in the place of Israel,” he hammered.
“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,” said French Minister for Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, on X.
“After October 7, when there are still hostages in the undergrounds of Hamas, when Hamas has just rejected, once again, the cease-fire proposal, that France decides to make this decision, it is very serious,” said Josua Zark on Friday.
The vice-president of the Palestine Liberation Organization (OLP), Hussein al-Cheikh, praised this decision in favor of “the establishment of our independent state”. It is a “positive step”, added Hamas, by calling other countries to follow this example. Saudi Arabia has also welcomed a “historic” decision and called on other countries to take “similar positive measures”.
Divided European countries
France “will mobilize all those of its international partners who wish to take part,” promised Emmanuel Macron in a letter addressed to the president of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas.
On May 19, the United Kingdom, Canada and France had paved the way for possible recognition in a joint declaration. But since then, none of the leaders of these three countries had taken the plunge. On July 10, visiting the United Kingdom, Emmanuel Macron called for a common recognition of the State of Palestine by France and the United Kingdom, without success for the time being.
In May 2024, Ireland, Spain and Norway, joined a month later by Slovenia, had already taken the plunge in Europe. “Together, we must protect what (Benjamin) Netanyahu is trying to destroy. The two -state solution is the only solution,” reacted Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on X. But Europeans remain divided on this issue, Germany believing that a recognition today would be “a bad signal”.
Pressure on Israel
In a letter dated June 9 addressed to the French president, Mahmoud Abbas undertook to demilitarize the Islamist movement of Hamas, at the origin of the attacks of October 7, 2023 in Israel, within the framework of a future Palestinian State. He also said he was ready to organize legislative and presidential elections in 2026 in order to “strengthen the legitimacy” of the Palestinian authority and his “authority over the future Palestinian state”, including Gaza, recalls Emmanuel Macron in his letter.
So many wages in favor of the two -state solution, estimates the French president, hoping to convince the Israelis that she is also in their interest. “These are not letters that we need, it is facts” which show that the population is “educated for peace”, reacted the ambassador of Israel to France this Friday on BFMTV.
Emmanuel Macron’s announcement comes when American emissary Steve Witkoff on Thursday failed talks in Doha for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. Israel faces increasing international pressure to end the suffering of the more than 2 million inhabitants of the Palestinian territory, subject to a blockade which deprives them of vital humanitarian aid. In this context, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced an “emergency interview” on Friday with his French and German counterparts to see how to “stop the massacres and provide the population with the food they are desperately needed”.
In France, the president of the national rally, Jordan Bardella, deplored a “hasty decision”, which will grant Hamas “an unexpected institutional and international legitimacy”. The leader of rebellious France Jean-Luc Mélenchon, conversely, congratulated a “moral victory”, while deploring that it is not immediate.
