French President Emmanuel Macron's declaration that France will recognise a Palestinian state at the next UN General Assembly has intensified pressure on UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to choose a course, risking either a cabinet mutiny over Gaza or alienating the White House.
Macron's announcement, made on social media late Thursday, draws a clear distinction between the US and French approaches to the Gaza war. It significantly raises the pressure on the UK, Germany and other G7 powers to pick a side. Starmer, Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz held an emergency call on Friday, issuing a joint call for Israel to lift its food blockade, an immediate ceasefire and the release of hostages. However, there was no apparent shift in the UK or German positions on recognition.
The German government said it had no short-term plans to recognise a Palestinian state. Starmer reiterated his stance that statehood must come as part of a coordinated sequence towards peace. “Recognition of a Palestinian state has to be one of those steps. I am unequivocal about that,” he said. “But it must be part of a wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis.”
Victor Kattan, assistant professor of public international law at Nottingham University, said the French move “obviously puts huge pressure on the UK to act likewise”. France and the UK are close allies, and the issue was discussed during Macron's recent visit to London. The shift in western European positions comes as UN officials and legal experts increasingly accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza. The International Court of Justice is weighing a genocide charge brought by South Africa in December 2023.
Khaled Elgindy, a visiting scholar at Georgetown University, described Macron's declaration as “a mostly symbolic gesture that will annoy the Israelis but ultimately will not change anything on the ground”. He argued that only trade sanctions and arms embargoes would be meaningful in the face of Israeli war crimes. France, like other western states, has not stopped arms supplies to Israel.
Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian ambassador to the UK, countered that looking for immediate results from recognition misses the point. “This is really the wrong question, and it has led us to where we are today: genocide, mass killing, mass starvation, mass destruction, and the further erosion of the very idea of a two-state solution,” he said. He called for recognition “without ifs and buts” and immediate, to kickstart a political process. Macron's announcement precedes a two-day UN conference in New York, hosted by France and Saudi Arabia, aimed at establishing a blueprint for peace through Palestinian statehood.
