The prime minister risks either provoking a mutiny in his cabinet and party over Gaza or alienating the White House
France’s decision to recognise Palestine at the next UN general assembly is an attempt to build momentum for change and make a break from the major western powers’ impassivity in the face of Israel’s mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza.
Emmanuel Macron’s declaration, announced in typically dramatic fashion on social media late on Thursday night, draws a bright line between the paths followed by the US and France over the Gaza war, and significantly raises the pressure on the UK, Germany and other G7 powers to pick a side.
Macron, Keir Starmer and Friedrich Merz were due to talk on Friday in what Starmer described as an “emergency call” about efforts to agree a ceasefire and steps towards Palestinian statehood.
Merz’s government said it had “no plans to recognise a Palestinian state in the short term”, but Starmer’s position is less adamant, favouring recognition at an undefined “point of maximum impact”, and he is facing growing calls from parliament, the Labour party and within his own cabinet to follow Macron’s lead.
