CRIF, the representative body of Jewish institutions in France (CRIF), urged French legislators not to vote a draft resolution calling on the French government to recognize a Palestinian state.
The draft resolution tabled by Socialist MPs is set to be discussed and voted by the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, on November 28.
On December 11, a similar text will be discussed in the Senate.
According to CRIF President Roger Cukierman, ‘’this resolution is not conducive to the establishment of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. It may generate new tensions on the ground. If passed and supported by the government, it would call into question France’s position and role of arbiter between Israelis and Palestinians. "
The text of the resolution, however, isn’t met with unanimity among the Socialists.
MP Armand Jung, who chairs the France-Israel friendship group, urged to add in the text a formula on the recognition of Israel by Hamas and about the condemnation of the current terrorist attacks against Israelis.
In the current version of the draft resolution, "the Assembly calls on the French government to recognize the State of Palestine in order to achieve a final settlement of the conflict."
The text recognizes "the urgent need to reach a final settlement for the establishment of a democratic and sovereign State of Palestine, living in peace and security with Israel, based on the 1967 lines with Jerusalem capital of both states, mutually recognized.’’
The vote of the Assembly and the Senate is however not binding for the French government, but it would necessarily be very symbolic after a vote by the British Parliament mid-October in favor of a non-binding motion to “recognize the state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel as a contribution to securing a negotiated two-state solution” and as Sweden became last month the first country of the European Union to recognize a Palestinian state.
France will “obviously at a certain moment recognize the Palestinian state,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius declared, adding : ‘’The question is when and how? Because this recognition must be useful for efforts to break the deadlock and contribute to a final resolution of the conflict.”