by Yossi Lempkowicz
CRIF on Macron’s Palestinian state notice: Three months ago, he conditioned recognition on the release of the hostages and the surrender of Hamas.
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French President Emmanuel Macron addressing the annual CRIF gala dinner in Paris, Feb. 20, 2019. Credit: European Jewish Press. |
President Emmanuel Macron‘s announcement that France will recognize a Palestinian state without preconditions “is a moral mistake, a diplomatic error and a political danger,” said CRIF, the representative body of French Jewish institutions.
On Thursday, Macron wrote on social media: “Faithful to its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognize the State of Palestine. I will make the solemn announcement at the United Nations General Assembly in September.’’
In a statement released on Friday, CRIF noted that three months ago, the French president announced that he was considering recognizing a Palestinian state, subject to the release of the hostages still being held in Gaza and the surrender of Hamas.
“Today, none of these conditions have been met,” CRIF stressed.
“The announcement of recognition of the Palestinian state in September is therefore in total opposition to the president of the republic’s own previous declarations,” it added.
CRIF also pointed out that 78% of French people are opposed to unconditional recognition, according to a poll IFOP (the Institut français d’opinion publique) conducted in June.
“Whatever the intentions of the president of the Republic, this recognition will be brandished by Hamas as a symbolic victory and a reward for the terrorism of October 7, which claimed more than 1,200 victims, including 50 French citizens,” CRIF said.
“By granting the Palestinians at the beginning of the process what they must obtain at the end, this premature recognition will encourage the Palestinian side to make no further compromises, thereby encouraging the failure of future negotiations.”
CRIF said that in France, the premature recognition of the Palestinian state will galvanize the extreme-left anti-Israel La France insoumise (France Unbowed, LFI) Party, “which has made Gaza an election slogan, and all the antisemitic agitators who twist the Palestinian cause to justify attacking French Jews.”
“Demanding that the minimum conditions for its recognition be met does not mean rejecting a Palestinian state, it means promoting a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians when the time comes,” CRIF said.
‘Oct. 7 cannot be the founding myth of a nation’
Caroline Yadan, a member of the French National Assembly who represents French citizens abroad, including in Israel, said Macron’s decision “deeply upsets me.”
“In my view, it is a political, moral and historical mistake. Last June, the president himself laid down clear and essential conditions for any recognition of a Palestinian state: the release of all hostages, the complete demilitarization of Hamas, the exclusion of Hamas from any form of governance, an in-depth reform of the Palestinian Authority, mutual recognition between Israel and Palestine, and respect for Israel’s fundamental right to live in peace and security,” she wrote on X.
She continued, “Of course, what is happening in Gaza is a tragedy. It deeply upsets us. All human lives are equal, and no one can be satisfied with the chaos and suffering that is taking place there. Our common objective must remain the search for a lasting political horizon, based on a two-state solution, living side by side in security and dignity. But none of these conditions has yet been met.
“To ignore them is to give in to emotion, impatience and even a form of resignation. Above all, it sends a dramatic signal: that of legitimizing an Islamist terrorist organization, Hamas, which did not fail to congratulate the president of the republic,” said Yadan, who is a member of Macron’s Renaissance Party.
“It means ignoring the rockets that continue to be fired daily into Israel, in deafening silence. To recognize a Palestinian state less than two years after the greatest antisemitic massacre since the Shoah, while the desire to repeat this abomination remains intact, is to accept the invasion of a sovereign state as a legitimate means to an end.
“The day of the pogrom on October 7, during which terror expressed itself without limit, cannot be erected as the founding myth of any nation. Peace cannot be decreed. It cannot be built on the ruins of pain, or on the erasure of principles. It is not the result of a unilateral gesture, but of a difficult path that requires lucidity, courage and justice—for both peoples,” Yadan said.
Originally published by the European Jewish Press.
Yossi Lempkowicz
Source: https://www.jns.org/a-moral-mistake-a-diplomatic-error-and-a-political-danger/
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