Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – French President Emmanuel Macron visited El Arish in Egypt on Tuesday to see refugees from Gaza with his own eyes. He then announced that France would recognize the State of Palestine, probably in June.
Mohamed Bouhafsi at French public television reports on remarks of French President Emannuel Macron on Gaza and the Palestine issue. Bouhafsi pointed out that Macron’s visit is the first time a leader had traveled to the frontier between Egypt and Palestine. He was accompanied by Egyptian President Abdelfattah al-Sisi. Macron went to a hospital, where he met many children who were victims of Israeli bombing raids.
Macron said, “My presence is a way of saying that one does not have the right to forget Gaza. I saw, and it was overwhelming, children and adults. Some had a look that held something . . . beyond the pain of grief. When you haven’t . . when, deep down, you’ve gone beyond humanity and, when you want to survive.”
The president continued, “A young woman was injured in her spinal cord and remained in the rubble from September to March. Her gaze was was not one of suffering. She had lost all her brothers and sisters. In front of her mother-in-law, who was there and who had lost five children and grand-children . . . Her gaze was not one of pain. It was not even one of rage. She wanted to return to that land. When you reach that level . . . The immense responsibility taken on by those who do that, it is to build generations who have grown up with resentment.”
Bohafsi described how Macron visited the Red Cross offices. Its perishable stocks of aid are blocked from delivery by Israel. Since March 18, when Israel unilaterally ended the ceasefire and restarted its intense bombardment of Gaza, he noted, 1500 Palestinian civilians have been killed. The reporter observed that Macron was pressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to change his strategy.
Macron said, “I am among those rare leaders who have never ceased talking to him, and who have always accepted profound disagreements. We have a disagreement on humanitarianism and the relationship to life. We have a strategic disagreement. I don’t think that it serves the security of Israelis to have them believe that the response should only be securitized. It is the same story he has been telling for fifteen years and it isn’t true. There is October 7. The response has to be political. Our role is on the side of humanity. It must respect the Israeli prime minister and the Israeli people, but it must also attempt to tell him that what he is doing is not in accord with international law.”
“It is a crime. These are not their values,” Macron said.
Bouhafsi says that Macron spoke not only with al-Sisi but also with Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. The French president rejects any future role for Hamas in Gaza. But he does not want to hear about the displacement of the population for the sake of the inhumane “Riviera” projects proposed by US President Donald Trump.
Macron said, “There cannot be forced displacement. We are not going to once again make women and men stateless. We must construct a solution. It isn’t a matter of real estate. A simplistic approach won’t help.”
Macron said he had remonstrated with Trump on this issue, though he understood the American president’s impatience. He said it would be wonderful if the issue one day saw an extraordinary breakthrough, adding,
“Our responsibility is to save lives, to restore peace and to negotiate a political framework. If that doesn’t exist, no one will invest. Today, no one would put a dime into Gaza.”
Bouhafsi said that Macron also spoke of the urgency of returning hostages and the bodies of dead hostages to Israel from Gaza. He called for a daily struggle against those who would import the conflict into France.
Macron pointed out that France has the biggest Jewish community [around 440,000] of any country in Europe. But, he said, France is also the European country with the largest number of residents of Middle Eastern and North African origin [perhaps six million of France’s 65 million people]. He said France was the European country with the largest Muslim population. He added, “All the ingredients were present for us to explode after October 7. I am very proud of us.”
He said it is important to combat antisemitism, which he averred had broken out in France after October 7. He complained that some young people on social media expressed the view that to be for Gaza meant to be against Israel. He said it was right to be outraged, and that he himself is outraged, but that it isn’t right to essentialize anyone. “Our unity,” he said, “is the Republic.” That is, you can’t have the French republic if its Arab and Jewish citizens give in to “shortcuts and foolishness,” i.e. ethnic stereotyping.
Asked about French recognition of Palestine, Macron said, “We must move toward recognition. In the coming months, we will go there. I will not do it for the sake of unity or to please anyone. I will do it because it is just. I want to participate in a collective dynamic. It will allow those who defend Palestine to recognize Israel in turn, to be clear in fighting against those who deny the right of Israel to exist, as is the case with Iran, and will allow us to engage in collective security in the region.”
Macron added, “In June, with Saudi Arabia, I would like to convene a conference.”
. French President Emmanuel Macron. File. European Parliament via https://www.flickr.com/photos/36612355@N08/51830991330/. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.. H/t Wikimedia Commons.
Bouhafsi finishes up his segment with a brief interview with former center-right French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who opposed the Iraq War and tangled with George W. Bush. The reporter asked him about recognizing Palestine.
De Villepin answered, “It is the only way to transform this tragedy into politics. To exit violence and to reenter the realm of political responsibility. I salute the pathway that the president of the Republic is offering between now and the June conference. I am happy with the gesture he made in traveling to the vicinity of Gaza and the words he used. For the past 18 months, we have all been able to see what’s happening in Gaza. We can see this tragedy unfolding daily before the indifference of too many states, including in the EU, and too many leaders. We must put an end to all this. We must break free from this escalation where Israel is being led by a government, despite the resistance of its people.”
If France took this step, it would join Spain, Ireland and Norway, all of which recognized Palestine in May 2024 in response to Israel’s defiance of the International Court of Justice’s ruling against any invasion of Rafah, then the last functioning city in Gaza, where a million refugees from the north of the Strip were huddled. Rafah has now been razed to the ground.
Earlier, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Iceland had all recognized Palestine. Indeed, 147 UN member states now recognize the State of Palestine as a sovereign state, out of 193 United Nations members. That is more than 75% of all UN members.
The Macron interview is fascinating in that it suggests two main motives for the French initiative. One is to calm tensions inside France between its substantial Jewish and Muslim populations. France recognizes Israel and its government is very pro-Israel, leaving millions of French Arabs and Muslims feeling unrepresented. Macron wants to fix that alienation without giving up close relations with Israel, and recognizing Palestine is the symbolic gesture he feels he can make in this regard.
The other implicit motivation is maintaining France’s traditionally close relations with Arab countries, some of them its former colonies.
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