French President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday that France would formally recognize the state of Palestine as a development in his nation’s “historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.”

The announcement comes on the heels of France — along with 27 other western nations — issuing a joint statement condemning Israel for its “drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians” in Gaza while calling for “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” to end its genocidal war.

Additionally, 111 international organizations sounded the alarm on Wednesday that the “mass starvation” being inflicted on Gaza by the Israeli army must now be immediately remedied by the “decisive action” of governments that can no longer wait for “permission to act.”

In a statement posted on X, Macron said, “I have decided that France will recognize the State of Palestine. I will make this solemn announcement at the United Nations General Assembly in September.”

Attached with the French president’s post were photos of a letter addressed to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, dated July 24.

Consistent with its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognize the State of Palestine.

I will make this solemn announcement before the United Nations General Assembly this coming September.… pic.twitter.com/VTSVGVH41I

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) July 24, 2025

“The urgent priority today is to end the war in Gaza and to bring relief to the civilian population. Peace is possible,” he wrote.

“We need an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and massive humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza,” the French president said.

He also reiterated commitments made by Abbas as referenced in the attached letter. This includes “the demilitarization of Hamas,” and the state of Palestine agreeing to a full recognition of Israel and itself being demilitarized.

According to an April Times of Israel report, Hamas would be willing to cede control of the Gaza Strip to other Palestinians while being open to disarming itself after the establishment of a Palestinian state.

UN official: Macron’s announcement a distraction
In response to Macron’s announcement, Francesca Albanese, the U.N.’s Special Rapporteur for the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, said in an interview with French broadcaster BFMTV, “thank you for this decision. It’s 30 years late.”

According to an AI translation from French, she went on to explain that this gesture falls short given the legal obligations imposed by international law on all member states, including France, with regards to holding all parties, particularly Israel, responsible for their war crimes and crimes against humanity that are ongoing, even daily.

“The problem is that I wouldn’t want (this decision) to be a distraction from what is happening now and France’s obligations towards the reality in Palestine (due to the current crimes) of Israel,” Albanese said. “Today, focusing on the States while Israel has killed 60,000 people, among which 1,000 (were killed) while they were looking for food, it’s more than barbarism.”

I have never felt so shaken.

Children are dying of hunger. Falling one after another, like petals of a dying flower. Under our watch.

How do you sleep, Presidents, Foreign Ministers, political leaders, diplomats, civil servants – doing nothing to stop Israel’s starvation… https://t.co/MqExfWysHk pic.twitter.com/okWRk7iIbU

— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) July 24, 2025

She went on to explain the obligations “that states like France have” since the decision of the International Court of Justice to declare the illegality of Israel’s 58-year military occupation of Palestine.

“We must absolutely make sure that Israel withdraws its troops, dismantles the colonies (“settlements”), and stops using Palestinian resources, water, land, and everything belonging to it,” she said.

“Also, there is incontrovertible documentation of war crimes, crimes against humanity, the genocide crime committed by Israel. What is France doing (about it)? Talking about two states, it seems to me a way of distracting attention from where it should be,” the human rights expert observed.

Due to the necessity of dealing with these ongoing emergencies and putting an end to the genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, nations are required to impose sanctions on the State of Israel as was done also to pressure South Africa to end its apartheid system in the early 1990s, Albanese explained.

🇫🇷 – I will offer full commentary on France’s recognition of the State of Palestine when France recognises the State of Palestine.

Meanwhile, this is a good opportunity to kindly remind France and other states:

1. of their non-derogable obligation to realise the inalienable… https://t.co/WQ2usmmJVW

— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) July 25, 2025

The native Italian legal scholar went on to describe how the French government had obligations to prosecute French citizens who inhabit the illegal colonies (“settlements”) on the Palestinian West Bank, and those who participated in acts of war on the Gaza Strip.

Macron must also honor the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against all individuals, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Asking a simple question to evaluate the French president’s sincerity, Albanese asks, “Will he make sure that they are brought to justice, yes or no?” suggesting that the current announcement may indeed serve as a distraction from the action that Macron and all other U.N. member heads of state are bound to enforce.

‘The Church will never abandon the people of Gaza:’ Cardinal Pizzaballa
In a phone call last week with Abbas, Pope Leo XIV echoed the demand for immediate humanitarian aid to be admitted into the Gaza Strip to feed the starving population while condemning the use of indiscriminate force against civilians and Israel’s U.S.-backed plan to ethnically cleanse the native Palestinian population.

READ: Christian leaders in the Holy Land rebuke Trump’s plan to relocate Palestinians

He then recalled with the Palestinian president, “the auspicious 10th anniversary of the Comprehensive Agreement between the Holy See and the State of Palestine, signed on 26 June 2015” said the Holy See’s statement.

This commemoration marked one of the milestones in a long line of public expressions of support for the Palestinian cause from Catholic prelates in the Holy Land, the Holy See, and around the world. The unanimous and constant voice of these spiritual leaders has demanded an end to the “sin” of Israel’s ongoing illegal 58-year military occupation of internationally recognized Palestinian territory, which is seen as the “root” aggression of the seemingly perennial conflict.

“It is only by ending decades of (Israeli) occupation and its tragic consequences, as well as giving a clear and secure national perspective to the Palestinian people that a serious peace process can begin,” Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa assessed in October 2023. “Unless this problem is solved at its root, there will never be the stability we all hope for.”

READ: How do Christians in the Holy Land understand the Israeli occupation of Palestine?

In addition to the Holy See, 147 of 193 (76%) member governments of the United Nations currently recognize the state of Palestine in a formal way. When France presumably follows through in September, that number will be 148 (77%).

Cardinal Pizzaballa: The Church will never abandon the people of Gaza.https://t.co/eSzDw3csZD

— Vatican News (@VaticanNews) July 22, 2025

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