France defends Palestine recognition as key to Arab support for disarming Hamas

French Ambassador to Israel Frederic Journes defends France’s campaign this month to recognize and rally support for recognition of a Palestinian state despite Israel’s strong opposition, saying Paris views the move as “key leverage” that can help Israel by building an international coalition to oversee postwar Gaza and by encouraging greater Arab cooperation with Israel.

“Our recognition of Palestine was the key leverage that we used together with Saudi Arabia to bring on board Muslim and Arab states, to accept a future normalized with Israel. It brought on board countries like Qatar to say that the future of Gaza [needs to be] Hamas-free,” Journes tells Israeli reporters.

While aware that French recognition “is often depicted [in Israel] as a reward for Hamas, a reward for terror, and a threat to Israeli security, [it] is not that,” he adds, stressing that the process France is endorsing through recognition “contains a proposal signed even by the Arab League of a future of normalization with Israel [alongside] a Palestinian state.”

The envoy refers to the outcome document of a July United Nations conference co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia on reviving the two-state solution. At that conference, Arab and Muslim states — including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey — signed a declaration that, for the first time, condemned Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, demanded the release of all hostages, called on Hamas to disarm, and urged an end so its rule of Gaza.

“While it might be considered as just words,” he adds, the declaration also calls on the Palestinian Authority not only to cooperate with Israel but also to commit to being a demilitarized state. It further urges the PA to crack down on terror by ending payments to terrorists and their families, stopping anti-Israel incitement, and holding elections only for parties that recognize Israel and support peace.

“The initiative also proposes a path for Gaza with a stabilization force — which we are trying to build – on the governance that will not include Hamas,” he adds.

“All of this needs, of course, to be translated into facts, but this is a start of a process,” he adds.

“The security of Israel is extremely important to us,” he continues, noting that Israel has condemned unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state over concerns that it rewards Hamas and fails to facilitate a viable peace plan.

He adds that the ongoing conflict in Gaza must be brought to an end: “Endless war may be reassuring at first because your neighborhood is not a friendly one, but it must be exhausting.”

“Peace is hard. The only thing is, war is harder,” the ambassador says.