French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday welcomed Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas to Paris, pledging support following France’s recognition of a Palestinian state and announcing the creation of a joint committee to draft a constitution and build P.A. institutions.
The P.A. leader visited as “president of the State of Palestine” for the first time since Macron recognized Palestinian statehood two months ago.
Speaking with the press following their meetings at the Élysée Palace, Macron emphasized that Ramallah can “count on France to continue advancing along the path we have outlined together,” which he said would “open the door to peace and establishing a Palestinian state.”
“Today, we have together decided to set up a joint committee for the consolidation of the State of Palestine. This committee will work on all legal, constitutional, institutional and organizational aspects,” he continued.
The French-P.A. committee will assist Abbas with his declared goal of drafting a constitution, as well as with fulfilling all other “conditions necessary for such a State of Palestine.”
Macron repeatedly hailed Abbas as a “partner for peace” with Israel, claiming he has “consistently” condemned violence and terrorism, including the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in the Jewish state.
The French president also praised the P.A. leader for his “unambiguous condemnation of all forms of antisemitism.”
Abbas, who is in the twenty-first year of a four-year term, reportedly condemned as “unacceptable” Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel in a private letter to Macron in June.
However, the nonagenarian leader has yet to unequivocally denounce the deadliest single-day attack on Jews since the Holocaust publicly in Arabic. In addition, Abbas, whose 1982 doctoral dissertation contained Holocaust denial, has often peddled antisemitic tropes and libels.
Tuesday’s visit by the P.A. leader “marks a new and crucial stage in relations between France and the State of Palestine,” Macron told reporters, declaring: “I know I can count on President Abbas.”
Abbas told Macron that Ramallah would call its first general election in nearly 20 years “one year after the beginning of the second phase of the ceasefire” in Gaza, and that he would cease payments to terrorists.
“I welcomed this essential step for the P.A.'s credibility, both in itself and in the eyes of all international partners,” said Macron, adding that Abbas “assured that no further payments would be made under that system.”
A reformed mechanism brands the P.A. terror stipends as “welfare support,” and the payment allocation system was transferred from an official P.A. ministry to an “independent” foundation controlled by Ramallah.
Macron announced following the meeting that, in addition to setting up the joint committee, Paris would contribute 100 million euros ($116.62 million) to the “humanitarian response” for the Gaza Strip for 2025.
In an English-language interview with Yonit Levi of Israel’s Channel 12 that aired on Sept. 18, Macron claimed that the recognition of a Palestinian state was “the best way to isolate Hamas,” in Gaza, calling the terrorist group’s subsequent praise for his initiative “pure cynicism.”
According to a poll commissioned by the CRIF umbrella organization of French Jewish communities and published on Sept. 18, almost three in four French people opposed Macron’s idea to recognize “Palestine.”
The survey suggested that only 29% of French people supported the immediate recognition at the United Nations as passed by Macron.
Among those who opposed the move, 38% were in favor of recognizing “Palestine” only after Hamas release the hostages and surrenders; 33% said they were opposed to any recognition plans “in the short time.”
