Benjamin Netanyahu slams France's Macron for plans to recognise Palestine as sovereign state
In an interview to France 5 broadcast on Wednesday, Macron said his government would move towards recognising Palestine as a State in the coming months
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunda lashed out at French President Emmanuel Macron for his plans to recognise Palestine as a sovereign state during a UN conference in New York in June.
The prime minister's comments echoed those of his son, Yair Netanyahu, who also condemned Macron for expressing hope that his move would trigger a reciprocal recognition of Israel by Arab countries.
“President Macron is gravely mistaken in continuing to promote the idea of a Palestinian state in the heart of our land -- a state whose sole aspiration is the destruction of Israel,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
“To this day, not a single figure in Hamas or the Palestinian Authority has condemned the horrors of the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,” Netanyahu said, referring to the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel.
Netanyahu described this as “a silence that reveals their true attitude toward the Jewish state.”
“We will not endanger our existence over illusions detached from reality, and we will not accept moral lectures about establishing a Palestinian state that would threaten Israel's survival – especially not from those who oppose granting independence to Corsica, New Caledonia, French Guiana, and other territories, whose independence would pose no threat to France whatsoever.”
Macron on recognising Palestine
In an interview with France 5 broadcast on Wednesday, Macron said his government would move towards recognising Palestine as a State in the coming months.
“I will do it because I believe that at some point it will be right and because I also want to participate in a collective dynamic, which must also allow all those who defend Palestine to recognise Israel in turn, which many of them do not do,” Macron said.
The French president clarified his remarks on Friday in a post on X, saying, “I support the legitimate right of Palestinians to a state and to peace, just as I support the right of Israelis to live in peace and security, both recognised by their neighbours. I am doing everything I can with our partners to reach this goal of peace. We truly need it.”
France would be the most significant European power to recognise a Palestinian state. Paris has long advocated a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and insisted the same after the outbreak of the ongoing war.
As of 2024, around 138 out of 193 United Nations (UN) member states, excluding Western countries and their allies, recognize Palestine as a sovereign state. In 2012, Palestine also gained a non-member observer state status at the global body.
Last May, Ireland, Norway and Spain announced recognition, followed by Slovenia in June, as part of measures condemning Israel's military assault on Gaza.
(With inputs from AFP)
