A group of 102 former French and British ambassadors has urged France and the UK to act together to uphold international law in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
In an article published on Saturday in Le Monde, the former diplomats said the two countries, both permanent members of the UN Security Council, should take joint action.
They said France and the UK, which recognised the State of Palestine in 2025, must now turn that recognition into concrete measures.
The signatories accused the Israeli government of undermining the prospect of a Palestinian state. They also condemned the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the violence and destruction in the West Bank.
“Palestine is disappearing before our eyes,” they wrote, describing the plight of two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as confined to 30% of a devastated territory, starving and deprived of medicine and shelter.
They said house demolitions in East Jerusalem and elsewhere in the West Bank, along with widespread settler violence “with the complicity of the Israeli army and police”, amounted to ethnic cleansing.
The article also condemned the “heinous crimes” committed by Hamas in Israel on 7 October 2023. But the former diplomats said that “nothing justifies the systematic policy of destruction in Gaza and against its population”.
They called on Paris and London to enforce rulings by the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, including by suspending trade agreements with Israel and halting bilateral military co-operation.
At the same time, they urged Palestinians to ensure that the state recognised by more than two-thirds of countries is democratic and governed by the rule of law despite the occupation.
They also called for the political, administrative and economic reunification of Gaza and the West Bank, and for free and fair elections to be held.
The text does not mention the disarmament of Hamas, which Israel regards as an essential condition for any withdrawal from Gaza.
Among the French signatories are Yves Aubin de la Messuzière, a former ambassador and former head of North Africa and the Middle East at the foreign ministry, Bernard Bajolet, former ambassador to Algeria and Jordan, Denis Bauchard, a former ambassador and former head of North Africa and the Middle East, and Frédéric Desagneaux, former consul general in Jerusalem.
The British signatories include Sir Jeremy Greenstock and Sir Emyr Jones Parry, both former ambassadors to the UN, and Sir Vincent Fean, former consul general in Jerusalem.
The article was published amid tensions between Israel and several European countries. On Thursday, Germany, France, Italy and the UK called on Israel to “end the expansion of settlements in the West Bank”.
