‘The time for peace has come’: Macron announces France’s recognition of Palestine
Emmanuel Macron announces that France has formally recognized the Palestinian state.
“We must do everything within our power to preserve the very possibility of a two-state solution, Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security,” he says.
The time has come.
This is why, true to the historic commitment of my country to the Middle East, to peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
This is why I declare that today, France recognises the state of Palestine.
Emmanuel Macron announces the French recognition of Palestine. Photograph: Lev Radin/EPAShare
Updated at 17.15 EDT
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Closing summary
We’re wrapping up this live coverage now after the day’s events at the UN. You can read our full report here, and below’s a recap of the key news lines. Thanks for reading.
French president Emmanuel Macron officially recognised a Palestinian state at the United Nations on Monday, spurring a wave of western moves to do the same despite fierce resistance from Israel and the US.
Macron told a two-state solution conference he convened with Saudi Arabia that the war in Gaza should end and “the time has come to do justice for the Palestinian people”. “The time for peace has come, as we are just moments away from no longer being able to seize it,” he told the general assembly.
Macron set out a plan for a UN-mandated international stabilisation force in postwar Gaza. He also called for Hamas-held hostages to be freed and for an end to “the bombings of Gaza, the massacres and the displacement”.
The Palestinian Authority hailed France’s “historic and courageous” decision and its delegation gave him a standing ovation.
Australia, Britain, Canada and Portugal also recognised a Palestinian state, raising pressure on Israel as it intensifies its war in Gaza. Monaco, Belgium, Andorra, Malta and Luxembourg then all recognised, bringing the total number of recognitions to three-quarters of UN membership.
UN secretary general António Guterres said statehood was a “right, not a reward” for Palestinians. “Nothing can justify the horrific 7 October terror attacks by Hamas or the taking of hostages. And nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
António Guterres addressing the UN summit in New York. Photograph: Eduardo Muñoz/Reuters
Israel and the US – its chief ally – boycotted the summit, which ended late on Monday.
Arab and Muslim leaders are set to meet President Donald Trump in New York to discuss their separate plan for a stabilisation force in Gaza.
Germany, Italy and Japan are among major US allies that declined to recognise a Palestinian state. Spain, Ireland and Norway gave recognition in May, with Sweden in 2014.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed not to allow a Palestinian state, saying “it will not happen”. Israeli UN ambassador Danny Danon said Israel “will take action” over the recognition announcements. “They are not promoting peace, they are supporting terrorism.”
Donald Trump believed that recognising Palestinian statehood “is a reward to Hamas”, the White House said.
The UK foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, urged Israel not to respond to the new recognitions by annexing parts of the West Bank, saying: “Settler expansion threatens the very viability of a Palestinian state.”
Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas called on Hamas to surrender its weapons to his Palestinian Authority. Addressing the summit virtually after the US refused to allow him to attend, Abbas said: “We also condemn the killing and detention of civilians, including Hamas actions on October 7 2023.”
The wave of recognition of a Palestinian state is historic but unlikely to immediately change the situation on the ground in Gaza, reports Agence France-Presse, which quoted the International Crisis Group’s Israel-Palestine project director, Max Rodenbeck, as saying: “Unless backed up by concrete measures, recognising Palestine as a state risks becoming a distraction from the reality, which is an accelerating erasure of Palestinian life in their homeland.”
With AFP and agencies
Updated at 21.53 EDT
Just to recap, the US and Israel boycotted today’s two-state conference at the UN. Israeli UN ambassador Danny Danon said Israel would discuss how to respond to the announcements of recognition after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to Israel next week.
“Those issues were supposed to be negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians in the future,” Danon told reporters ahead of the conference.
Netanyahu is scheduled to meet Donald Trump on 29 September in Washington before returning to Israel, as Reuters reports.
Netanyahu has rejected repeated calls to end Israel’s military offensive until Hamas is destroyed and has said a Palestinian state “will not happen”, calling recognition of statehood a “prize” for Hamas.
The US has told other countries that Palestinian recognition will create more problems, secretary of state Marco Rubio said this month.
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese is preparing to meet the French president on the sidelines of the UN general assembly as he defends Australia’s recognition on Sunday of Palestinian statehood.
Ahead of his third official meeting with Emmanuel Macron, Albanese addressed the leaders’ summit on a two-state solution and compared the plight of Palestinians to that of the Jews before the creation of Israel, the Australian Associated Press reports.
“In recognising Palestine, Australia recognises the legitimate and long-held aspirations of the Palestinian people,” Albanese said. “It means real hope for a place they can call home.
This is the same hope that sustained generations of Jewish people.
In his speech to the conference – which has now wrapped up – Albanese also urged the Israeli government to “accept its share of responsibility” for the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza.
Australian PM Anthony Albanese addressing the leaders’ summit at the UN on Monday. Photograph: Lev Radin/EPAShare
Updated at 19.27 EDT
After France’s recognition of Palestinian statehood on Monday, Andorra, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta and Monaco also announced or confirmed their recognition of a Palestinian state.
It came a day after the UK, Canada, Australia and Portugal also recognised statehood.
Germany, Italy and Japan took part in the UN conference but did not recognise such a state, the AP reports.
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez has called for a state of Palestine to be admitted to the UN.
“This conference marks a milestone but it’s not the end of the road,” he said at the UN general assembly. “It’s only the beginning.
“The state of Palestine must be a full member of the United Nations,” said Sanchez, an outspoken critic of Israel’s war in Gaza.
“The process for the state of Palestine to join this organisation must be completed as soon as possible, on an equal footing with other states,” he said, quoted by the Associated Press.
Second, we must take immediate measures to stop the barbarism and make peace possible.
Spain – alongside Ireland and Norway – already recognised a Palestinian state in May.
Updated at 18.37 EDT
Recognising Palestine is “protecting the pathway to peace”, Cooper adds.
Updated at 18.16 EDT
She echoes others saying Hamas can have no future in the governance of Palestine.
In a carefully worded statement, Cooper condemns violence on both sides, citing “continued bloodshed, manmade famine, terrorism and hostage-taking, settlement expansion and settler violence”.
But more clearly, she says “settler expansion threatens the very viability of a Palestinian state”.
“The two state solution risks disappearing beneath the rubble – that is what extremists on both sides want,” Cooper says.
ShareUK foreign secretary says Palestinian statehood is ‘inalienable right’
The UK’s foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, says “statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people” and that “two states is the only path to security and lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike”.
Updated at 18.15 EDT
Luxembourg becomes latest nation to recognise Palestine
Luxembourg’s prime minister Luc Frieden says his country is officially recognising a Palestinian state.
It is the beginning of a renewed commitment to hope, a commitment to diplomacy, to dialogue, to coexistence, and a two-state solution. To the idea – fragile, but still possible – that peace can prevail.
“There are moments in history when the cause of peace demands both moral clarity and political courage,” Frieden says. Today “is such a moment in history”, he says.
He says “that the two-state solution remains the only viable way forward for lasting peace”.
Frieden reiterates, like others, that it is “not a decision against Israel or its people” and also not a move to “reward violence”.