France’s Premature Recognition of a “State of Palestine” Excludes Israel from the Vital Bilateral Negotiations Needed to Secure Peace and Safety for the Jewish State

B’nai B’rith International President Robert Spitzer and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin have issued the following statement:

B’nai B’rith International joined a coalition of Jewish groups in rejecting a meeting with France’s Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot, set for July 28.

We fiercely reject France’s recognition of a “State of Palestine” as premature, outside the bounds of negotiations and a reward to the genocidal terror group Hamas, which continues to hold Israeli hostages it captured on Oct. 7, 2023. President Emmanuel Macron himself only weeks ago insisted that the release of the Israeli hostages and the exclusion of Hamas were minimum terms for beginning a discussion.

In a letter to Pierre Tribolet, head of Press and Communications at the Consulate General of France in New York, Mariaschin wrote: “France’s announcement that it will recognize a Palestinian state in advance of any agreed pathway to negotiations only rewards those who seek to eliminate the State of Israel or who refuse recognition of the right to a Jewish state in our ancestral homeland.

Already, Hamas’s praise for France’s decision makes the point. Terror has been rewarded.

We expected much more from France at a moment when it could have played a constructive role in resolving this crisis in the Middle East. The act of recognition can only set progress back, not forward.”

We commend the U.S. government, which has strongly rejected France’s proposal.

As we prepare for our annual meetings on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in September, we urge the French government to review the facts and withdraw its support for a Palestinian state.