RAMALLAH, August 22, 2026 (WAFA) — In an article published Saturday in the French newspaper Le Monde, dozens of former French and British ambassadors called on France and the United Kingdom, both permanent members of the UN Security Council, to work together to ensure that Israeli authorities respect international law.
The article was signed by 102 former diplomats, including former ambassador and former director of the North Africa and Middle East Department at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yves Aubin de La Messuzière; former ambassador to Algeria and Jordan, Bernard Bajolet; former ambassador and former director of the North Africa and Middle East Department, Denis Bouchard; and former French Consul General in Jerusalem, Frédéric Desagneaux.
From the British side, the article was signed by former ambassadors to the United Nations, Jeremy Greenstock and Emyr Jones, as well as former British Consul General in Jerusalem, Vincent Fean.
The diplomats said that France and the United Kingdom, which recognized the State of Palestine in 2025, must translate this recognition into concrete actions. They noted that Israel is undermining the prospects for a Palestinian state and condemned the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and the acts of violence and destruction committed by colonists and the occupying army in the West Bank.
They asserted that "Palestine is being erased before our very eyes," pointing to the dire situation of nearly two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, who they said are "besieged in an area that constitutes 30 percent of a devastated and starving land, deprived of shelter and medicine."
They added that the demolition of homes and widespread colonial violence in East Jerusalem and other areas of the West Bank constitute ethnic cleansing, carried out with the complicity of the occupying army and police.
The signatories of the article called on Paris and London to ensure respect for the rulings of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, particularly by suspending trade agreements with Israel and bilateral military cooperation.
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