Declaring that “the time has come,” President Emmanuel Macron announced that France was formally recognizing Palestine as a state at the opening of a conference in New York for the annual gathering of the United Nations General Assembly.
“A solution exists to break the cycle of war and destruction” between Israel and the Palestinian people, Mr. Macron said as his nation joined nearly 150 countries that already consider Palestine a sovereign nation. “It is the recognition of the other — of their legitimacy, their humanity, and their dignity.”
France was among about 10 countries that have either formally recognized Palestine or were expected to do so on Monday, including Belgium. Australia, Britain, Canada and Portugal did so on Sunday.
Those highly symbolic moves are intended to help salvage the prospect of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is looking as distant as ever as the Gaza war nears the end of its second year, Israel rapidly expands its settlements in the West Bank and the humanitarian crisis in the enclave grows more dire.
António Guterres, the U.N. secretary general, told the conference that statehood for Palestine was a right, not a reward, and that there was no other alternative. “Denying statehood would be a gift to extremists everywhere,” he said. “Without two states, there will be no peace in the Middle East, and radicalism will spread around.”
In practice, the recognition of a Palestinian state is unlikely to change the reality on the ground. And at the United Nations, the move will not elevate a Palestine state to full membership from its status as an observer state. (The U.N. Security Council would have to approve that change, and the United States would most likely veto it.)
But diplomats from Europe, the Middle East and Asia have said that the conference will showcase the alignment of a majority of the international community and the isolation of the United States on the issue as several of its key Western allies diverge from Washington’s policy.
“I think it does underline that there is still some potential pathway to a diplomatic solution for the Palestinians, even if everyone recognizes that it is an extremely long pathway,” said Richard Gowan, the U.N. director for the International Crisis Group.
The United States and Israel oppose the conference, arguing that recognizing a Palestinian state would embolden Hamas at a time when Israel is still at war with the militant group in Gaza and not all hostages captured during the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, have been released.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, criticized the initiative as “one-sided,” saying: “This is not diplomacy. It is theater.”
Ahead of the conference, the General Assembly ratified with an overwhelming majority — 142 votes in favor — the “New York Declaration,” a document put forward by France and Saudi Arabia that calls for the creation of a Palestinian state next to the existing Israeli one.
The declaration sets out “tangible, time-bound and irreversible steps” toward a two-state solution. It also condemns the Hamas-led attacks in 2023 that started the war in Gaza, as well as Israel’s assaults on civilians and civilian infrastructure in the Palestinian enclave and the humanitarian crisis there.
Here’s what else to know about the conference.
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Key speakers: The conference is being held at the U.N. General Assembly hall and is expected to last about three hours. Mr. Macron and Mr. Guterres spoke, with representatives of several other countries likely to, as well. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia is set to address the gathering in a virtual video.
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Palestinian presence: Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank, addressed the conference virtually from Ramallah. He is unable to attend in person because the United States declined to grant him and his delegation visas.
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A new approach to peace: Many diplomats said that the way the world has sought to broker peace for decades — by saving the establishment of a Palestinian state for the last stages of negotiations in a comprehensive deal between Israel and Palestinians — had failed. The conference aims to turn that notion on its head, by starting with recognition of a Palestinian state and working from there to achieve peace.
Near the end of his speech, Abbas addressed the people of Israel, stating “our future and yours depends on peace. Enough war. Let the people in our region live in durable peace and good neighborliness.” He then wished the Jews of the world a happy new year.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a briefing on Monday that President Trump “has been very clear” that he disagreed with the wave of nations recognizing Palestinian statehood. “He feels this does not do anything to release the hostages, which is the primary goal right now in Gaza,” Leavitt said, and that it “does nothing” to end the war in Gaza. Echoing critiques of the recognitions from Israeli leaders, she said that Trump believes the moves “reward” Hamas. “So he believes these decisions are just more talk and not enough action from some of our friends and allies,” she said, noting that the president would speak about the issue when he addresses the United Nations on Tuesday.
See Which Countries Recognize a Palestinian State
Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, called for Palestine to become a full-fledged member of the United Nations. A U.N. vote in late 2012 made Palestine a nonmember observer state in the organization, after which Abbas returned to the West Bank and declared: “We are now a state.” But for Palestinians in the West Bank, the situation on the ground has only grown worse with the expansion of Israel’s settlement project and intensifying violence.
Abbas, flanked by two Palestinian flags, also calls for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. He said that in post-war Gaza, the Palestinian Authority will rule the territory, and that Hamas will have no role in governing the enclave. He also called on the group to disarm. “What we want is a state with one law, and one legitimate security force,” he says.
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, speaking via video link from his headquarters in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, called for a permanent cease-fire that would bring the war in Gaza to an immediate and durable end. “We need to guarantee the release of all hostages and prisoners,” he said, referring to the captives taken by Hamas during its assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which ignited the war, and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
France, Britain and the other countries recognizing a Palestinian state this week say they aim to salvage whatever hope remains for the internationally backed formula to end the half-century-old conflict between Israelis and Palestinians: a Jewish state of Israel at peace with a neighboring Palestinian one.
But nearly two years into the devastating war in the Gaza Strip, Israelis and Palestinians alike say the possibility of a two-state solution seems more remote than ever.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has devastated the enclave. Israeli settlements have become ever more entrenched in the West Bank. In opinion polls, Hamas still commands greater support among Palestinians than the more moderate Palestinian leadership in the West Bank.
Many Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, now dismiss the possibility of ever allowing Palestinian independence. In the absence of any other solution, that would leave Israel ruling over millions of Palestinians indefinitely.
“There will be no Palestinian state west of the Jordan River,” Mr. Netanyahu said on Sunday. “For years, I have prevented the establishment of this terrorist state facing tremendous pressures at home and abroad.”
Partitioning the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea has long been a proposed solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The idea has formed the basis of multiple rounds of Israeli-Arab peace talks and United Nations resolutions.
In a nutshell, most proposals say the Palestinian state would be established in the territory Israel occupied in the Arab-Israeli war of 1967 — the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Palestinian-majority neighborhoods of Jerusalem — while Israel would remain in its internationally recognized borders.
Both Israeli and Palestinian critics question the justice, wisdom and feasibility of that approach. Many on both sides demand full control of the whole land, ruling out granting their rivals a state; only a small minority support a single, democratic state in which Palestinians and Israelis would have equal rights.
In the 1990s and 2000s, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators held multiple rounds of talks that Palestinians hoped would lead to an independent state. As part of the Oslo Accords, they agreed to create the Palestinian Authority, which still administers some areas in the West Bank.
But the talks fell apart in the early 2000s, as Palestinian militant attacks against Israeli civilians surged. Israel responded with a major crackdown, sending tanks into the larger Palestinian cities. The violence ultimately subsided, but the peace process was dealt a severe blow.
Israeli and Palestinian officials last held serious peace negotiations during the Obama administration. Those talks were overseen by the same leaders still in charge today: Mr. Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-ruling prime minister; and Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority.
The peace process was moribund for about a decade in the wake of those talks. Then came the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which set off the war in Gaza and plunged Israelis and Palestinians into one of the deadliest chapters in their history.
As Israel’s campaign in Gaza has razed swaths of the territory, the Israeli right has seized the opportunity to sharply expand Jewish settlements in the West Bank. About 500,000 Jewish settlers live in the territory alongside three million Palestinians.
Israeli settler leaders hope that, by deepening their hold in the West Bank, they can foreclose the possibility of a Palestinian state. The Israeli government advanced plans for more than 20,000 new housing units in the settlements in 2025 alone, according to Peace Now, a settlement watchdog.
Advocates for a two-state solution say that it would end Israel’s occupation, which subjects Palestinians to a harsh life of checkpoints and Israeli raids. West Bank Palestinians cannot vote in Israeli elections, even though the government wields broad control over their lives.
The creation of a Palestinian state would also benefit Israelis, they say, by preserving Israel’s character as a Jewish-majority democracy and putting an end to the cycle of violence that has dominated the region for decades.
But Israelis are skeptical that establishing such a state would end the conflict. In the wake of the 2023 attack, they often argue that any territorial withdrawal would invite further attacks on a smaller and weaker Israel.
They also point to the failure of previous talks, for which they blame Palestinian leaders. Palestinians argue that Israel was never serious about compromise.
In any case, Israeli leaders now freely assert that they will never allow a Palestinian state.
The image of the Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, looms over the General Assembly hall on a large screen. Abbas will deliver his speech via a video link from Ramallah in the West Bank because the United States denied him and his delegation visas.
António Guterres, the U.N. secretary general, tells the Assembly that statehood for Palestine is a right, not a reward, and that there is no other alternative. “Denying statehood would be a gift to extremists everywhere,” he said. “Without two states, there will be no peace in the Middle East, and radicalism will spread around.”
The Saudi foreign minister, Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud, speaking on behalf of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, thanked countries taking the “historic step” of recognizing Palestinian statehood. He called for “a new reality whereby the region can enjoy peace, prosperity and stability.”
Macron noted that others would be joining France in recognizing Palestinian statehood on Monday, including Andorra, Malta, Luxembourg, Belgium, Monaco and San Marino. He said they were making “the responsible choice” that would “pave the way for useful negotiations” for Palestinians and Israelis.
With Macron’s announcement of France’s recognition of a Palestinian state, that’s all that needed to happen under French custom and law to make it official. There is no vote in the lower or upper houses of Parliament.
President Emmanuel Macron of France at the United Nations announced his nation’s recognition of the state of Palestine, drawing applause and a standing ovation from some of the attendees.
It is notable that Macron began his speech by denouncing the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, demanding that the remaining hostages be freed and antisemitism be smothered. He has worked repeatedly to try to convince Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel that his recognition of a Palestinian state is not a reward to Hamas or meant to inflame antisemitism in France.
The day after Canada joined other nations in recognizing Palestine, Prime Minister Mark Carney said that he hopes that there will be a policy alignment with United States. “We would hope that there would be convergence with the United States,” he said following a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. “And we will certainly support leadership of the United States that’s leading to outcomes that are consistent with our values.”
President Emmanuel Macron of France has arrived in the United Nations General Assembly hall and is being greeted by other world leaders, offering many the French “bise” — two kisses, one on each cheek. He is joined by his Middle Eastern adviser, Anne-Claire Legendre.
President Emmanuel Macron of France formally recognized the state of Palestine on Monday afternoon in a speech opening a special summit at the United Nations. France’s recognition, following similar moves by other nations to acknowledge Palestinian statehood in recent days, drew applause in the hall and a standing ovation from some attendees.
“The time has come,” Mr. Macron said. He acknowledged that the decision was part of an effort to end the war in Gaza, and that it served as “the recognition that both Israelis and Palestinians live in a twin solitude: the solitude of the Israelis after the historical nightmare of Oct. 7, 2023, and the solitude of the Palestinians, at the end of their rope, in this endless war.”
For Mr. Macron, the formal acknowledgment is an attempt to salvage the two-state solution, which would acknowledge both a state of Israel and a state of Palestine, side by side. The idea was first pronounced by the United Nations in 1947 but was rejected by Arab countries and Palestinians at the time and led to a war.
The idea of a two-state solution has been at the heart of failed peace negotiations for decades, and Mr. Macron worried it was imperiled by Israel’s continued approval of new settlements in the occupied West Bank, he explained to CBS in an interview broadcast on Sunday.
For Mr. Macron, the acknowledgment of a state of Palestine is intimately tied to a larger “day after” plan for Gaza, once a cease-fire is declared, that his team developed with Saudi Arabia since last winter. The 42-point plan was approved by 142 countries at the United Nations General Assembly this month.
Its practical steps include the establishment of a “transitional administrative committee” to oversee governing and the creation of a stabilization force under the aegis of the United Nations to provide security. In the CBS interview, Mr. Macron said Middle Eastern countries, including Jordan and Egypt, had already committed to sending troops and that any security operation would be vetted by Israel.
Mr. Macron used his planned acknowledgment of Palestine as leverage to secure key pronouncements that isolate Hamas — which led the deadly 2023 attacks on southern Israel — politically and call for the group to be disarmed. Given that the plan approved by the General Assembly was signed by many Arab and Middle Eastern countries, including traditional allies of Hamas, Mr. Macron’s team considers the agreement a breakthrough.
He also used the symbolism of his act to ply public commitments by Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority. Those include holding elections in 2026, for the first time in 20 years; overhauling the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank; and stripping the Palestinian education curriculum of hate speech and incitement.
On Sunday, the governments of Britain, Canada, Australia and Portugal formally recognized the state of Palestine on the eve of Monday’s summit in New York.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel called those decisions futile and “a huge reward to terrorism.”
“And I have another message for you: It will not happen,” he said of the prospect of Palestinian statehood in a video statement on Sunday. “A Palestinian state will not be established west of the Jordan River.”
Asked if there would be an Israeli response to the international moves to recognize Palestinian statehood, Danon said, “We will take action.” He noted that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel had pledged on Sunday that a response would follow his upcoming visit to the United Nations and a meeting with President Trump. When asked specifically if Israel would annex additional occupied territories, Danon declined to discuss specifics and said it would be “a discussion for the government.”
Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, called the conference on Palestinian statehood on Monday a “theater,” addressing reporters as attendees were heading in to the meeting in New York. He said that a two-state solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians had been a matter of debate in Israel before the war in Gaza began nearly two years ago, but “after October 7, it’s off the table.”
Danon said world leaders had been discussing a Palestinian state with no role for Hamas but asked how that would be accomplished practically, pledging that Israel will keep fighting until “Hamas is out of the game completely.”
He said, “That will be the time that we can speak about the future. Not before.”
More than 50 town halls across France defied the government and hoisted the Palestinian flag on Monday, hours before President Emmanuel Macron was expected to formally recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations.
The symbolic but small gesture involved 86 of France’s nearly 35,000 municipalities as of Monday evening, according to the French Interior Ministry. It was opposed by the interior minister on the grounds that it breached neutrality rules governing public services and that it risked causing public disturbances.
But left-leaning mayors ignored that opposition in big cities like Rennes, Nantes and Lyon, as well as a smattering of smaller towns, including several suburbs of Paris.
“This flag is not the flag of Hamas; it is the flag of men and women who also have the right to freedom and self-determination,” Olivier Faure, the head of the Socialist Party, told reporters in front of the town hall in Saint-Denis, a suburb north of Paris that raised the Palestinian flag on Monday morning alongside the French and European Union flags.
“Hoisting a flag in front of a town hall won’t change the region’s fate,” Mr. Faure added. “But it’s a way to tell the world that France, and not just the president of the republic, support this move,” he added, referring to the recognition of a Palestinian state.
Mr. Macron’s decision has been divisive in France, which is home to the largest Jewish and Muslim communities in Western Europe.
It has been hailed by many on the left as a necessary and long-overdue step toward peace, but right-wing politicians and some in France’s Jewish community have opposed the move, arguing that it would embolden Hamas and that Palestinian statehood should be realized only after direct peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.
Bruno Retailleau, France’s interior minister, had instructed state prefects in the country to refer any decisions by mayors to fly the Palestinian flag to French courts.
“The front of a town hall is not a billboard,” Mr. Retailleau said last week.
Some cities, like Saint-Ouen, a suburb north of Paris, flew the Israeli and Palestinian flags together.
In Paris on Sunday evening, the Palestinian and Israeli flags were projected onto the Eiffel Tower, alongside an image of a dove carrying an olive branch.
What does it even mean for the Palestinians to have a state, when the borders of that state are undefined and the population can’t agree on which leaders govern them?
The criteria for statehood were laid out in an international treaty in 1933.
They include four elements: a permanent population, defined territorial boundaries, a government and an ability to conduct international affairs.
Recognition is an official acknowledgment that a would-be state broadly meets those conditions. It can occur even if an element is in dispute, including territorial boundaries.
Like all legal questions, “interpretation matters,” said Zinaida Miller, a professor of law and international affairs at Northeastern University.
The criteria for recognizing a Palestinian state have been met at a basic level, many experts on international law say.
A permanent population and land exist. The borders, while disputed, are broadly understood to be in Israeli-occupied territories, including the West Bank and Gaza, which was seized in 1967 in a war with a coalition of Arab states; as well as East Jerusalem, which Israel has effectively annexed.
The Palestinian Authority is a government body that administers part of the West Bank and represents Palestinians. Its creation was authorized by the Palestine Liberation Organization, which represents Palestinians internationally.
While there are limits to what the Palestinian Authority can do, given the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Hamas’s control of Gaza, foreign recognition of a Palestinian state would mean the establishment of direct diplomatic contact between the Authority and the recognizing nation.
Recognition would also send diplomatic and political messages. It would acknowledge the Palestinian right to self-determination and reject the positions and actions of the Israeli government that undermine that right, Ms. Miller said.