Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and French President Emmanuel Macron. AFP
"President Macron is gravely mistaken in continuing to promote the idea of a Palestinian state in the heart of our land," Netanyahu said in a statement, accoring to AFP, claiming such a state was seeking to destroy Israel, despite Israel's genocidal war on Gaza for the past 17 months.
He was responding to Macron's remarks earlier this week, in which the French president said that France recognize a Palestinian state state within months.
He cited the absence of a statement from Hamas or the Palestinian Authority to condemn Hamas's offensive into Israel on 7 October 2023, but failed to mention Israel's 16-year blockade on Gaza and its decades-long occupation of the West Bank 1967.
Netanyahu also conflated Israel's genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid regime against Palestinians with France's overseas territories, which have been fully integrated into the French Republic since 1946.
His remarks echoed those of his son Yair, who attacked Macron in an earlier post on X.
"Screw you!" Yair Netanyahu wrote in English late on Saturday.
"Yes to independence of New Caledonia! Yes to independence to French Polynesia! Yes to independence of Corsica! Yes to independence of the Basque Country! Yes to independence of French Guinea!" he added, apparently confusing it with French Guiana.
'Legitimate right'
Macron, in an interview on Wednesday, stated that France could recognize a Palestinian state during a UN conference in New York in June, saying he hoped this would trigger a reciprocal recognition of Israel by Arab countries.
"We must move towards recognition, and we will do so in the coming months," Macron, who this week visited Egypt, told France 5 television, AFP said.
"I will do it because I believe that at some point it will be right and because I also want to participate in a collective dynamic, which must also allow all those who defend Palestine to recognize Israel in turn, which many of them do not do."
He later posted on X, saying: "I support the legitimate right of Palestinians to a state and to peace, just as I support the right of Israelis to live in peace and security, both recognized by their neighbours. "
"I am doing everything I can with our partners to reach this goal of peace. We truly need it," he stressed.
Relations between Israel and France have deteriorated in recent months.
France has long championed a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Moreover, such a move would make it the most significant European power to recognize a Palestinian state, a move the United States has also long resisted.
Hamas welcomed Macron's statement, saying: "France, as a country with political weight and a permanent member of the (UN) Security Council, has the ability to influence the course of fair solutions and push towards ending the occupation and achieving the aspirations of the Palestinian people."
Nearly 150 countries recognize Palestine as a state.
Last May, Ireland, Norway and Spain announced recognition, followed by Slovenia in June— moves partly fuelled by global condemnation of Israel's genocidal bombing of Gaza and its weaponization of starvation against over two million Palestinians in the devastated territory.
On 18 March, Israel unilaterally ended a two-month truce with Hamas, brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the US, to resume its genocidal war on the strip.
Since then, Israeli has killed 1,560 Palestinians, bringing the total death toll since the outbreak of Israel's war on 7 October 2023 to at least 50,944, with more than 116,000 others injured.
Earlier on 2 March, Israel renewed its deadly blockade on Gaza, barring the entry of food, medicines, and all goods humanitarian aid, thereby exacerbating the catastrophic conditions in the strip.
On Sunday, Hamas condemned the latest Israeli strike targeting civilian infrastructure as a "new war crime" after it severely damaged Al-Ahli Arab Hospital — also known as the Baptist Hospital — in Gaza City and forced it out of service.
Hamas also slammed the US for protecting Israel's impunity and genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
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