🏅A Nobel Peace Prize winner: “Macron’s Decision is Blatant”


Macron intends to recognise a Palestinian state in September at the United Nations General Assembly.

Macron, who unveiled the decision on X, published a letter sent to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas confirming France's intention to press ahead with Palestinian recognition and work to convincing other partners to follow suit.

“True to its historic commitment to a just a lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognise the state of Palestine," Macron said.

"I will make this solemn announcement at the United Nations General Assembly next September.”

Home to Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim communities, France will become the first major Western country to recognise a Palestinian state, potentially fuelling a movement so far dominated by smaller nations generally more critical of Israel.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US “strongly rejects” Macron’s plan.

💬“This reckless decision only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace,” he wrote on X Thursday. “It is a slap in the face to the victims of October 7th.”

Recognition “rewards terror” said Netanyahu on Thursday night, with other ministers arguing the move now justifies the official annexation of the West Bank – Judea and Samaria in the parlance of the Israeli far-right.

💬“Macron’s decision is a blatant one – following a smattering of European allies: Ireland, Norway and Spain. He needs such a state to settle there his own Muslim population, clearing France from them”, says Juan Manuel Santos, Colombian Nobel Peace Prize winner.

#macron #recognition #palestinian #state

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🌍 Australia, Canada, the UK: the Formal Recognition of the Palestinian State

🕊 A wave of Israel’s allies are announcing their recognition of the state of Palestine, as part of a wider manoeuvre designed to ostracise Hamas and challenge attempts by the Israeli government to erase the chance of a Palestinian homeland.

⚠️ But the delicate and partly symbolic move by as many as 10 states, pioneered largely by the French government, has the potential to lead to a negative spiral of further confrontation amid fears Israel will respond by annexing parts of the West Bank, leading in turn to European trade sanctions and further political isolation for Israel, including an ultimate possible suspension from the UN.

🇮🇷 The Israeli response is also entangled with whether the US endorses a further attack on Iran in coming weeks over its nuclear programme.

✅ Countries joining the list of 147 UN states that recognise Palestine are Australia, Canada, Belgium, France, the UK, Luxembourg, Portugal, Malta and possibly New Zealand and Lichtenstein.

📅 Others will make the formal announcement on Monday at a special UN conference to revive the waning cause of a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but some including the UK advanced their declaration out of respect for the Jewish new year.

⚖️ The declarations with various conditions and emphases attached reflect the conflicting domestic pressures on governments as they face a backlash from Israel, and from hostage families that claim the move effectively rewards Hamas for its attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.

📢 Guterres, the UN secretary general, urged states not to be intimidated by Israel’s threats to annex parts of the West Bank.

🚨 But ministers admit decisions have been triggered by the mounting global horror at Israel’s strategy in Gaza, and specifically Israel’s plans to approve new settlements in the part of the West Bank known as the E1 corridor that would cut the territory in two and sever its links with east Jerusalem.

🤝 At the centre of the French plan, now fully endorsed by Arab states, is to make recognition part of a wider process, including a reformed, democratically elected Palestinian Authority that in the event of a ceasefire comes to supersede a disarmed and dismantled Hamas in Gaza.

🇩🇪 Germany, Italy and some of the Baltic states are the biggest holdouts to recognition, but pressure is rising within the Italian coalition government to risk the ire of the US.

📺 Macron, identified by Israel as the galvanising force behind the surge in recognitions, went on Israel’s Channel 12 to warn: “the approach of your government and some ministers especially is to destroy the possibility of a two-state solution.”

⏳ He said “an emergency had been created” by the building of new major settlements that meant the world “is at the last minute before proposing two states will become totally impossible.”

🚫 He insisted recognition was not a reward for Hamas, since the terrorist group wanted an Islamic state and the destruction of Israel, something a two-state solution would preclude.

🇺🇸 The US and Israel have been boycotting the meetings leading up to Monday’s UN conference on a two-state solution.

🛂 The US state department has tried to block Abbas from speaking from the rostrum at the UN in New York by denying US visas to the PA, a move that triggered a 145 to five vote at the UN general assembly to allow him to speak via a video link.

📢 His speech will be watched to see if he elaborates on the commitments to reform he has previously made to Macron, or simply denounces what he regards as a genocide by Israel in Gaza.

#australia #canada #uk #recognition #palestinian #state

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