President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to formally recognize a Palestinian state is a calculated and symbolic gesture designed to salvage France’s moral standing on the world stage. This is a hollow gesture long overdue, and one that does far more for France’s image than it does for the suffering Palestinians on the ground.
Coming “hard on the heels” of similar, equally belated moves by the UK, Canada, and Australia, Macron’s declaration is part of a coordinated scramble by Western nations to appear as if they are doing something—anything—to respond to the catastrophic situation in Gaza. This wave of European recognition of Palestine is more a sign of a diplomatic breakdown than a breakthrough.
The absence of Germany and Italy from this effort is telling and exposes the deep divisions within the EU. Germany, in particular, continues to hide behind its post-Holocaust “reason of state” with Israel, with Chancellor Friedrich Merz arguing that recognition should only come “at the end of the process.” This is a profoundly flawed and cowardly argument.
The “process” has been going on for decades, and Israel’s continued expansion of illegal settlements, which even the German government has been increasingly critical of, is actively killing any hope for a viable Palestinian state. To say that recognition must wait for a two-state solution to be realized is to wait for a miracle that will never come as long as a government committed to the West Bank annexation is in power.
