French lawmakers were to debate on Friday a motion urging the government to recognize the Palestinian Authority (PA) as “Palestine,” according to AFP.
The symbolic motion is expected to pass comfortably on December 2 when the lower house of parliament votes on the text proposed by the ruling Socialists.
The vote comes hot on the heels of a similar resolution approved by British lawmakers on October 13, Spanish MPs on November 18 and the formal recognition by Sweden on October 30.
The text “invites the French government to use the recognition of the state of Palestine as an instrument to gain a definitive resolution of the conflict.”
It is non-binding on the government, although Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told AFP in a recent interview that France would “obviously at a certain moment recognize the Palestinian state.”
The Socialist MP who drafted the text, Elisabeth Guigou, told AFP the aim was to “reaffirm that the two-state solution is the best guarantee for peace”.
“If we do not act now, there is a risk of entering into an irreversible cycle of violence and transforming this territorial conflict into a regional conflict,” added Guigou. “Nothing would be worse for the region and for Europe.”
Ahead of the vote, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned France it would be making a “grave mistake” if it recognised Palestine as a state.
“Do they have nothing better to do at a time of beheadings across the Middle East, including that of a French citizen?” he told reporters in Jerusalem on November 23, referring to hiker Herve Gourdel who was executed by his jihadist captors in Algeria in September.
“Recognition of a Palestinian state by France would be a grave mistake,” Netanyahu said.
On the eve of the parliamentary debate, President Francois Hollande told French media he wanted to host an international conference “to find a solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
He did not say when such a gathering might take place or who would be invited.
Guigou stressed that France – which has Europe’s largest Muslim population and largest Jewish community – had good relations with both the Palestinians and the Israelis.
“We are not going to tip the balance by voting for this motion. On the contrary, we reaffirm several times the need for mutual and reciprocal
recognition and the need for security guarantees for Israel,” she said.
Reflecting the sensitivity of the subject in France, parliament is expected to be divided, with the right-wing opposition UMP party seen voting against the motion.”
Fabius has insisted that any resolution “must be useful for efforts to break the deadlock and contribute to a final resolution of the conflict,”
warning against a purely symbolic gesture.
“If it’s a state on paper that doesn’t exist in reality, that will offer nothing to the Palestinians,” he told French radio.
Last month, Sweden became the first official EU country to recognize the “State of Palestine,” prompting its ambassador to be recalled from Jerusalem in retaliation.
However, it is unclear how binding that decision is, as Foreign Minister Margot Wallstroem admitted Monday that it would not open an embassy in Ramallah following the announcement.
“Nobody has opened an embassy in Ramallah, and we think that this can be managed by the consulate in Jerusalem, which is a satisfactory solution for us,” Wallstroem told public radio.
Meanwhile, the UK’s own recognition of a “Palestinian state” in a landslide vote of 274 to 12 in October has sparked uproar from local politicians and Israeli ministers alike – with Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz blaming the move specifically for an upswing in terrorism.
The opposition has not deterred a trend of declaring the PA a “state.” however, and Spain became the third nation to officially vote to recognize the PA as a country last week.
