This Thursday, July 24, 2025, Emmanuel Macron announced that he will recognize the state of Palestine in September during the United Nations General Assembly in New York, thus becoming the 149th country to do so. So, a simple smoke screen, or a real political seism, let’s look at what will be concretely the consequences of this decision by Emmanuel Macron.
The facts
The doubt has already been hovering for a few months in terms of the French president’s intentions on the Palestinian subject. He had indeed announced that France could recognize a Palestinian state last June, announces that it did not know, not executive, following the Israeli strikes in Iran which had adjourned the session. He had then specified that there was for him, no conditions preliminary to this recognition, all the same that the latter was part of a “global process”. This process including the end of the war in Gaza, the return of humanitarian aid in the enclave, the return of Israeli hostages and finally the disarmament of Hamas.
But it is perhaps following the worsening of the situation in the enclave, where the Israeli army affects the population and draws on those looking for food aid, that the French president decided to take action and recognize the state of Palestine, before the end of the war. Perhaps it is in response to the announcements to the ever more desinhibited violence of the officials of the Israeli government, such as Bezalel Smotrich, Minister of Finance claiming that Gaza would be “completely destroyed”, or the Minister of Housing and National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir who said that “the Gaza Strip should be flattened … all must die”.
Anyway, the decision did not fail to react, Benjamin Netanyahu saying that it “rewards terror”, and the American secretary of state claiming that his country was “firmly opposed” to this decision. For his part, the president was enhanced by Riyadh, who praised a “historic” decision, as well as by the Spanish president Pedro Sanchez who “delighted” that France joins the European countries having recognized the state of Palestine.
“Together, we have to protect what Netanyahu is trying to destroy. The solution of the two states is the only solution »Pedro Sanchez, Spanish president.
The influence of France
It was therefore after Barbados, Jamaica, Trinité-et-Tobago, Bahamas, Spain, Ireland, Sweden, Slovenia and Armenia in 2024, that France will join in September 2025, the 148 states having recognized Palestine as a country.
However, unlike most countries, France is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, alongside the United Kingdom, Russia, China and the United States. Consequently, it has a stronger voice internationally than most countries, since the 5 members of the UN Security Council have a right of veto on international resolutions, whatever the majority opinion on the Council. Today, two of the 5 members have recognized Palestine: Russia and China.
With her relatively important soft power and this “third way” which she has tried to embody the international since De Gaulle and the rejection of American imperialism, France hopes here to embody a new momentum in the West. A momentum that goes against the current leadership and therefore in reverse of the alliance strategy with the latter, effective since the end of the Second World War. France would then become the first country of the G7 to recognize the State of Palestine.
This afternoon will meet during an “emergency” interview, English, French and German leaders to see how to “stop the massacres and provide the population with the food they desperately need”.
For the time being therefore, no one knows if this decision of the French president will have real diplomatic repercussions, especially in the Western world, where well if France will be a javium again alone.
