France's recognition of Palestinian state: why Macron has finally taken the plunge
The French president has announced that Paris will formally recognise the state of Palestine during the United Nations General Assembly in September. After long waiting for backing from both Western and Arab allies, the French head of state has now decided to go it alone. As Mediapart's political correspondent Ilyes Ramdani reports, the impact of this decision - which has already been angrily condemned in Tel Aviv and criticised in the United States - will largely depend on Paris’s ability to stand firm against Israeli pressure.
TheThe scale of the genocidal war in Gaza has finally won out over Emmanuel Macron’s dithering. On Thursday July 24th, the French president announced his decision to recognise the state of Palestine, a move he will make official at the United Nations General Assembly at the end of September. “In doing so, France wants to make a decisive contribution to peace in the Middle East,” he wrote in a letter sent earlier that day to Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority.
