British officials are dubious that Emmanuel Macron intends to press ahead with French recognition of a Palestinian state next month – the first by a G7 nation – which could also push back the UK government following suit, reports The Guardian.
The French president indicated last month that Paris might recognise Palestine, joining 148 other countries, but said he wanted to do so at a UN conference in New York in June as part of a wider process.
The UN conference on the two-state solution is scheduled for 2-4 June, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia.
Israel has already warned Macron that recognition would be seen as rewarding Hamas, and France has been trying to forestall the criticism by strengthening a reformed Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza.
The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, has confirmed to parliament he has been in discussions with the French about recognition, but also said he would not simply support a gesture with no practical impact. But the growing British view is that France – a country that has debated recognition for more than a decade – will decide the conditions are not ripe.
The UK has for years said it will recognise a Palestinian state, but only at the point of maximum impact, without defining that moment any further.
But British officials admit anger at the Israeli blockade of aid into Gaza, and backbench Labour MPs’ frustration with their party’s response in government is putting pressure on the Foreign Office to back an initiative.
The UK Middle East minister, Hamish Falconer, was forced in the Commons this week to defend claims by government lawyers in the high court that there is no genocide in Gaza, or that women and children were being targeted by Israel. Edward Leigh, father of the house and a Conservative, asked Falconer if he was “aware that many friends of Israel worldwide, notwithstanding narrow legal definitions, are asking this moral question: when is genocide not genocide?”
A Palestinian human rights group, Al-Haq, is seeking a judicial review that the government has acted unlawfully in continuing to supply components and spares for F-35 fighter jets to a global pool that can then be transferred to Israel in Gaza.
Read more of this report from The Guardian.