France to join calls for Palestinian state in gamble for Macron

Ania Nussbaum, Bloomberg News on Sep 22, 2025

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French President Emmanuel Macron is joining international allies in recognizing a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly this week, putting him at odds with U.S. counterpart Donald Trump.

Macron plans to formally announce the move at the annual meeting in New York on Monday, at an event he is co-hosting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, who will speak by video link. That follows the recognition statements on Sunday by the U.K., Australia and Canada, a response to Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza and the unfolding humanitarian crisis — and an unprecedented step that brings major Western powers into alignment with the close to 150 countries that already recognize Palestine.

The U.S. is the chief ally of Israel, and the Trump administration is firmly opposed to recognizing a Palestinian state — it’s now the only permanent member of the U.N. Security Council that doesn’t. Given Washington’s key role in providing military support to Ukraine and as an economic partner for Europe, that makes the French and British move fraught with risks.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called statehood recognition “counter-productive” because it emboldens Hamas, the militant group that’s been fighting Israel in Gaza for almost two years. Charles Kushner, the U.S. ambassador to France, has repeatedly criticized Macron’s initiative on X, and last month accused the government of not acting sufficiently against anti-semitism.

In an interview with CBS News on Sunday, Macron called Kushner’s criticism a “mistake” and an “unacceptable statement for somebody who is supposed to be a diplomat.”

The U.S. administration has refused to grant a visa to the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, meaning he’ll only be able to address the French-Saudi event by video. That decision broke with decades of precedent in which the U.S. has agreed to grant visas to Palestinian officials, including Abbas, and the leaders of enemies like Iran and Libya, to attend the annual U.N. gathering and deliver speeches.

Macron, who called Trump a “friend” on a visit to Washington in February, argued on CBS that his initiative is “the best way to isolate Hamas,” designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and European Union. “The objective of Hamas is absolutely not to create a Palestinian state,” the French president said.

Macron’s position on Palestine comes against the backdrop of a prolonged political crisis at home, with France on its fifth prime minister in less than two years and suffering a second sovereign downgrade in a week. The country also has significant trade relations with the U.S., with billions in exports from aviation to pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza — in which over 64,000 Palestinians have died, according to the Hamas-run health ministry — and push to take over its de facto capital, Gaza City, is “unproductive,” Macron told CBS. While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that his government would retaliate against countries that recognize Palestine, Macron has said he will keep talking to the Israeli leader.

“There will be no Palestinian state,” Netanyahu said, calling formal recognition an “attempt to force upon us a terror state in the heart of our land.”

“You are rewarding terror with an enormous prize,” he added.

The war in Gaza began after Hamas invaded the country in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and abducting about 250. The Iran-backed group still holds 48 hostages, of which 20 are believed to be still alive, and has refused an Israeli demand to disarm as a precondition to ending the war.

International concern regarding the conflict centers on the impact on Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinian civilians, who have mostly been displaced, in some cases repeatedly, during an Israeli campaign that has devastated the enclave. Last Month, a U.N.-backed monitor declared a famine in parts of the territory, following a months-long Israeli blockade on aid and food.

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—With assistance from Sam Dagher and Alan Katz.