One hundred former diplomats: ‘Palestine is being wiped out before our very eyes’
The letter, addressed to President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Andy Burnham, was signed by 52 former French diplomats and 50 former British ambassadors; many of them served in the Middle East, holding high-level posts
Over 100 former French and British diplomats are calling for urgent action to pressure Israel into accepting a Palestinian state, including a ban on trade and arms sales and the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, as well as the trade agreement between the UK and Israel. The appeal is set out in a joint letter.
‘In Gaza, two million Palestinians are confined to 30 per cent of their devastated territory, starving and deprived of medicines and shelter. Over 1,200 Palestinians have been killed since the so-called ceasefire came into effect,’ it reads. It continues: “In East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, the demolition of Palestinian homes and the rampant violence by settlers – with the complicity of the Israeli army and police – amount to ethnic cleansing.”
Palestine, the signatories argue, ‘is being wiped out before our very eyes’. The policy of ‘occupation and destruction’ extends to Lebanon and Syria. Arguing that the United Kingdom and France played a key role in shaping the modern Middle East and recalling that both countries recognised Palestine as a state in 2025, the diplomats state that they now have a responsibility to “make common cause on the region’s fundamental fault line: equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians”.
The letter, addressed to President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Andy Burnham, was signed by 52 former French diplomats and 50 former British ambassadors; many of them served in the Middle East in high-level posts. The document, handed to *The Guardian* and *Le Monde*, was published two days after the United Kingdom and France, together with Italia and eight other countries, condemned the Israeli government’s publication of tenders for the E1 settlement project, stating that the proposed housing units “will push Israel even further away from peace”. In response to this announcement, London is considering a ban on trade in goods and services with Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Whilst violence continued yesterday in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip – where the IDF claimed to have killed a Hamas commander – Israel continues to carry out air strikes in Lebanon. According to the Lebanese News Agency (NNA), yesterday Israeli fighter jets launched an attack in the area between the villages of Sarbin and Rashaf, in the Nabatieh Governorate in southern Lebanon. And during the night between Friday and Saturday, they attacked the area of the Ali al-Tahir heights, ‘using phosphorus shells’, according to the NNA.
