Recognition of the State of Palestine: From Charles de Gaulle to Emmanuel Macron, France will have taken its time

HISTORY: France must officially recognize the State of Palestine this Monday. An act which concertizes the promotion of a two-state solution, a constant diplomatic position for around forty years

The essential

France must officially recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly this Monday.
It is the culmination of a diplomatic position which has changed little over the past forty years.
The promotion of a two-state solution was in fact a common thread initiated by De Gaulle, consolidated by Mitterrand and continued by all French presidents. But why did you wait so long?

This Monday, France must officially recognize the state of Palestine by the voice d’Emmanuel Macron at the General Assembly of United Nations. A decision announced in July and which the President of the Republic describes as “faithful” to France’s “historic” commitment “for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East”.

This decision is therefore not a break but rather “the culmination of a process”, underlines Thomas Maineult, historian and associate professor of History, author of a thesis on the Palestinian cause in France. For around forty years, French diplomacy has considered that a state is needed for the Palestinians.

Construction from the 1970s

Originally, between France and Israel, the period of the Fourth Republic is a time of “very great complicity”, recalls Pascal Boniface, director of the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (Iris), in a YouTube video. But at the time of the Six Day War in 1967, Charles de Gaullestart a change. The French president condemns the occupation of the Palestinian Territories, breaks off military cooperation with Israel for starting the war and even imposes an arms embargo. “He is beginning a policy of rebalancing relations with Arab countries”, specifies Thomas Maineult. If this criticism of Israel does not call into question relations between the two countries, France is thus paving the way for the recognition of Palestinian rights.

A posture which, in the 1970s, was consolidated. “The root of the problem is to consider that there can only be lasting peace in the Middle East if the Palestinian question is the subject of a just settlement… From the moment the international community recognizes the existence of a Palestinian people, this people must be able to have a homeland”, affirms Valéry Giscard d’Estaing in 1974. At the same time, “the Palestinian cause is gaining ground in academic and student circles, in the trade union and associative world and then in politics”, notes the historian.

The Mitterrand turning point

Then “it’s with the presidency of François Mitterrand let us really observe a commitment on the path to recognition, with important diplomatic initiatives”, says Thomas Maineult. In March 1982, the president visited Israel for the first visit by a French head of state since its creation. Before the Knesset, he recalled Paris’ position, affirming its support for Tel Aviv while evoking the right of Palestinians to have land. “Dialogue presupposes the prior and mutual recognition of the other’s right to exist, he declares. Dialogue assumes that each party can follow their rights to the end. Which, for Palestinians as for others, may when the time comes mean a state. ”

It’s François Mitterrand who will lead Yasser Arafat to amend the Palestinian charter to remove articles that call for the destruction of Israel”, supports Thomas Maineult. A process which led to the Palestinian leader’s visit to Paris in 1989, a trip during which he declared the PLO charter “obsolete”. “The role of Mitterrand and French diplomacy at this time is fundamental”, recalls the historian. It was therefore during this decade that the two-state solution became an official and constant discourse of French diplomacy.

Caution and continuity

The following heads of state will remain on this line. “In the 1990s and 2000s, there were fewer diplomatic initiatives and advances”, explains Thomas Maineult. Media stunts are nevertheless landmark, like the visit of Jacques Chirac in 1996. ” Do you want me to take my plane and to go back to France? “he gets annoyed as Israeli security agents push back Palestinians who want to greet him in the streets of Jerusalem.

Recognition of a Palestinian state is slow. France wants to accommodate the reluctance of part of its public opinion while preserving its strong links with the Jewish state. “There are still many opponents in France, notably certain associations and political parties, especially on the right, explains the historian. What’s more, Israeli governments are increasingly on a hard line on the subject, particularly since the 1995 assassination of the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

The right time is now

“Under Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, we will be very careful”, adds Thomas Maineult. In 2014, at the initiative of socialist deputies, a non-binding motion for a resolution was adopted in Parliament aimed at recognizing the State of Palestine. “But during the 2010s, there were other problems to manage, says Thomas Maineult. The Palestinian question has been relegated to the background.

In 2025, two years after October 7th and the triggering of the offensive in Gaza, the situation has changed. “There will never be a good time, so we might as well do it now”, imagines the historian. Recognizing something about the Palestinians, at a time when they are potentially disappearing, is important. “For French diplomacy, it is also one of the only cards left to play. “There is no alternative” to obtain peace in the Middle East, wrote Emmanuel Macron last July.