7/25/2025–|Last update: 03:34 (Mecca time)
The Palestinian Authority and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Arab countries welcomed the declaration of French President Emmanuel Macron, his intention to officially recognize the State of Palestine next September, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -who is required to the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes in Gaza -condemned this step.
Hussein Al -Sheikh, the Palestinian Vice President, said that this position “represents France’s commitment to international law, and its support for the rights of the Palestinian people in determining its fate and establishing an independent state.”
For its part, Hamas said that Macron’s decision “is a positive step in the right direction towards fairness of our oppressed Palestinian people,” and is “a political development that reflects the growing international conviction of the justice of the Palestinian issue”, appealing to other countries, especially European, including to follow the example of France in this field.
The movement also considered that “such international steps represent political and moral pressure on the occupation.”
“Historical Decision”
For its part, Saudi Arabia welcomed this step and saw that this “historic decision” confirms “the right of the Palestinian people to establish an independent state.”
In a post on X, the Saudi Foreign Ministry renewed its call “for the rest of the countries that have not yet recognized, to take such positive steps and serious situations that support peace and the rights of the brotherly Palestinian people.”
Saudi Arabia and France are sharing the chairmanship of the international conference on the future of the Palestinian state scheduled for 28 and 29 July at the United Nations headquarters in New York at the level of ministers.
In the same context, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry welcomed Macron’s declaration, and said in a statement that the Kingdom of Jordan “appreciates the decision of the French President as an important step to address the endeavors to deny the unusual right of the Palestinian people in self -determination and the embodiment of their independent and sovereign state over their national soil.”
The statement stressed that Macron’s decision is “a step in the right direction that leads to the embodiment of the two -state solution and the end of the occupation.”
Israeli anger
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned France’s decision, considering that it is “rewarding terrorism” and pose an existential threat to Israel.
Netanyahu said that the Palestinians “do not seek a state next to Israel, but rather want a state instead of Israel.”
He also criticized his deputy, Yarif Levin, and described it as “a black point in French history and direct support for terrorism,” considering that “the time has come now to implement Israeli sovereignty” on the West Bank occupied by Israel since 1967.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwgghmhcqi4
As for the Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz, Macron’s decision described as “a surrender to terrorism and a reward for Hamas,” and added, “We will not allow the establishment of a Palestinian entity that threatens our security and our existence.”
The French President announced in a statement on Thursday that his country decided to officially recognize the State of Palestine before the United Nations General Assembly next September, “fulfilling its historical commitment to achieving a fair and permanent peace in the Middle East.”
Macron stressed that “the urgent need today is to end the war in Gaza and save civilians.”
The French President sent a message to the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in which he stressed that Paris, by taking a move, intends to “make a decisive contribution for peace in the Middle East” and “will mobilize all its international partners who wish to participate.”
