French President Emmanuel Macron has announced that Paris will formally accept Palestine as an independent state, amid growing global outrage over the famine in the Gaza Strip.
In a post on the X platform, Mr Macron said he would formalise the recognition during the September session of the UN General Assembly.
“The priority at this point is to stop the fighting in Gaza and protect civilians,” he stressed.
The French president has offered support to Israel following the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, and has repeatedly condemned anti-Semitism, but his anger over the ongoing conflict in Gaza has grown, especially in recent months.
“We absolutely do not accept President Macron's decision,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Such a decision encourages terrorism and risks the emergence of another Iranian puppet regime, as has already happened in Gaza. A Palestinian state under such conditions will become a staging ground for the destruction of Israel, not for peaceful coexistence.
The Palestinian Authority has welcomed the move, with an official letter of France's intention being handed over to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Jerusalem on Thursday.
“We express our deep gratitude” to President Macron, said Hussein al-Sheikh, deputy head of the Palestine Liberation Organization under Mr. Abbas.
“This decision confirms France's commitment to international law and its support for the legitimate right of Palestinians to national self-determination.”
France becomes the leading and most influential country in Europe to proclaim an independent Palestine. More than 140 states have already recognized Palestinian statehood, including several European ones.
France is home to the largest Jewish diaspora in Europe and the largest Muslim community in Western Europe, and conflicts in the Middle East often spark protests and tensions within the country.
The head of the French Foreign Ministry will be one of the initiators of a conference at the UN next week aimed at a settlement based on the two-state formula.
Last month, Mr Macron reiterated his “determination to recognize the state of Palestine” and called for greater progress toward a bilateral solution, while reaffirming Israel's right to defend itself.
Thursday's announcement followed the US-led break-up of ceasefire talks in Qatar, where Washington pointed to Hamas' lack of good intentions.
In recent days, anti-Israeli rhetoric has been growing in different parts of the world.
Earlier this week, France and more than two dozen mostly European countries condemned Israel's restrictions on humanitarian aid deliveries and the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians trying to reach food supplies.
The Palestinians seek to create an independent country in the occupied West Bank, annexed East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip – areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
The Israeli government and most politicians have long rejected the idea of a Palestinian state and now argue that such an outcome would be a reward for militants after the 2023 attack.
Shortly after the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel annexed East Jerusalem and considers the area an integral part of the capital.
Dozens of settlements have been built in the West Bank, some resembling full-fledged cities, where more than 500,000 Jewish settlers with Israeli citizenship live today.
The three million Palestinians in the area are under Israeli military control; the Palestinian Authority has only limited self-government in towns and villages.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
