© msnFrench President Emmanuel Macron • 80th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters • New York, USA • September 23, 2025
We are here because the time has come. The time has come to free the 48 hostages held by Hamas. The time has come to stop the war, the bombings in Gaza, the massacres, and the fleeing populations. The time has come because the urgency is everywhere. The time for peace has come, because we are moments away from being unable to grasp it. That is why we are here today. Some will say too late, others will say too soon. One thing is certain: we cannot wait any longer.
In 1947, this Assembly decided to partition Mandatory Palestine between two states, one Jewish and the other Arab, and thus recognized the right of each to self-determination. The international community thus consecrated the State of Israel, fulfilling the destiny of this people, finally, after millennia of wandering and persecution, and who were able to found such a beautiful democracy there. The promise of an Arab state, however, remains unfulfilled to this day.
Since then, Israelis and Palestinians have each traveled a long road of mixed hope and despair, each in their own way. And we have walked with them, each of us according to our own history and sensibilities. But the truth is that we bear the collective responsibility for having failed so far to build a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.
This was the very evidence that was imposed on us on October 7, 2023, when the Israeli people suffered the worst terrorist attack in their history. 1,224 men, women, and children killed. 4,834 men, women, and children injured. 251 men, women, and children kidnapped.
The barbarity of Hamas and those who collaborated in this massacre stunned Israel and the world. October 7 is a wound that still stings the Israeli soul and the universal conscience. We condemn it without qualification because nothing, ever, anywhere, can justify resorting to terrorism. On this day, we think of the victims and their families. We express our compassion for the Israelis and demand, above all else, that all hostages still held in Gaza be released unconditionally. We French paid a national tribute to our 51 compatriots murdered that day, and to all the victims of October 7, 2023. We will not forget them. Never. Just as we will never cease the existential fight against anti-Semitism.
French people, we know the sting of terrorism. We hold dear the memory of the testimony of fraternity offered after the attacks committed in Paris on January 7, 2015, by dozens of foreign leaders demonstrating with them, first and foremost the Israeli Prime Minister and the President of the Palestinian Authority.
We know that there is no room for weakness in the face of terrorists.
We also know the danger of endless wars. We know that law must always prevail over force. Finally, we know from our history that attachment to the universal and to peace is the legacy of past centuries and the condition of salvation. I affirm this in the name of our friendship with Israel, to which our commitment has never failed. In the name of our friendship also with the Palestinian people, for whom we want the initial promise of the United Nations, that of two states living side by side in peace and security, to become a reality.
Yet at this hour, Israel is further extending its military operations in Gaza with the declared objective of destroying Hamas. But it is the lives of hundreds of thousands of displaced, wounded, starving, and traumatized people that continue to be destroyed. Even though Hamas has been considerably weakened and negotiating a lasting ceasefire remains the surest way to secure the release of the hostages.
Nothing, nothing more justifies the continuation of the war in Gaza. Nothing. On the contrary, everything demands that it be ended definitively now, if it could not have been done earlier. To save lives. The lives of the Israeli hostages still held in atrocious conditions. The lives of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians overwhelmed by hunger, suffering, the fear of dying, and the loss of their loved ones. To save all lives. Because for nearly two years now, it is the denial of the humanity of the other and the sacrifice of human life that have prevailed. Yes, since October 7, it is indeed the life of the other that has been denied.
We have been saying it since the first day of the war in Gaza: a life is worth a life. I know this from having hugged the families of the hostages I met in Tel Aviv and then in Paris. I think at this moment of the mother of Eyatar David, a starving hostage shown to the crowd by his executioners. I think of Nimrod Cohen, a nineteen-year-old hostage, whose father I have just greeted. I know this from having also been to the bedside of the Palestinian victims of Israeli military operations, refugees in Al-Arish, the women, the children, whose gaze I will not forget.
I know this from having met young people from Gaza who have been welcomed in France, and I am thinking of Rita Baroud, who should have been with us today and who continues to bear witness to the distress of her loved ones in Gaza.
A life is worth a life. And it is our common duty to protect one another, an indivisible duty, as is our common humanity.
A solution exists to break the cycle of war and destruction. It is the recognition of the other, of their legitimacy, their humanity, and their dignity. May both open their eyes and see human faces where war has placed the mask of the enemy or the features of a target. It is the recognition that Israelis and Palestinians live in a twin solitude, the solitude of Israelis after the historical nightmare of October 7, 2023, the solitude of Palestinians at the end of their tether in this endless war.
The time has come. Because the worst can happen, whether it be the sacrifice of so many more civilians, the expulsion of the population of Gaza to Egypt, the annexation of the West Bank, the death of the hostages held by Hamas, or faits accomplis that irreversibly change the situation on the ground. This is why, this is why we must today, right here, open this path to peace, because since last July, the acceleration of events has been terrible. At the point we are at, there is a fear that the Abraham Accords or Camp David will be called into question by Israel's actions and that peace will become impossible for a long time in the Middle East. We therefore bear a historic responsibility. We must do everything to preserve the very possibility of a two-state solution, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security.
The time has come. This is why, faithful to my country's historic commitment to the Middle East, to peace between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, I declare that France today recognizes the State of Palestine.
This recognition is a way of affirming that the Palestinian people are not a superfluous people. On the contrary, they are a people who never say goodbye to anything, to speak with Mahmoud Darwish. A people strong in their history, their roots, their dignity.
Recognition of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people does not detract from the rights of the Israeli people, which France has supported from day one and to which it is no less committed. This is precisely because we are convinced that this recognition is the only solution that will bring peace to Israel. France has never failed Israel when its security was at stake, including in the face of Iranian strikes.
This recognition of the State of Palestine is a defeat for Hamas and for all those who stir up anti-Semitic hatred, feed anti-Zionist obsessions and want the destruction of the State of Israel.
This recognition from France is accompanied by those that will be announced today, among others, and I thank them for them: those from Andorra, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and San Marino, who have waited with us for this moment and, seizing the call last July, have chosen responsibility, rigor, and peace. This, following the choice made by Spain, Ireland, Norway, and Slovenia in 2024, and so many others before.
This recognition opens the way to negotiations that will be useful to both Israelis and Palestinians.
This path is that of the peace and security plan for all that Saudi Arabia and France submitted to this assembly for a vote, which was adopted by a very large majority. It embodies our shared ambition to break the cycle of violence and change the situation on the ground. We have been able to take a step towards each other, to break out of our usual postures, and to set ourselves concrete objectives. It is now up to us, together, to trigger a peace process that meets everyone's needs.
The first phase of this peace and security plan for all is one of absolute urgency, that of combining the release of the 48 hostages with the end of military operations throughout Gaza. I welcome the efforts of Qatar, Egypt, and the United States to achieve this and call on Israel to do nothing more to hinder their success. Hamas has been defeated militarily by the neutralization of its leaders and decision-makers. It must be defeated politically to be truly dismantled. Once the ceasefire has been agreed, we will have to make a massive collective effort to bring relief to the people of Gaza. I thank Egypt and Jordan for their commitment here and remind Israel of its absolute obligation to facilitate humanitarian access to Gaza to help a population that is now destitute of everything.
The second phase is that of stabilization and reconstruction in Gaza. A transitional administration integrating the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian youth, and security forces whose training we will accelerate will have a monopoly on security in Gaza. It will implement the dismantling and disarmament of Hamas, with the support of international partners and the resources that will be necessary for this difficult mission. France is ready to contribute to an international stabilization mission and to support, with its European partners, the training and equipment of the Palestinian security forces. As soon as negotiations allow, the Security Council will be able to decide on the deployment of a civilian and security support mission, in liaison with the Palestinian authorities, with the consent of the Israeli authorities.
It will also be up to the State of Palestine to restore hope to its population, ravaged by years of violence and occupation, but also division and neglect. It will therefore be up to the State to offer its people a renewed and secure framework for democratic expression. President Mahmoud Abbas has made this commitment to Prince Mohamed bin Salman and to me.
He strongly condemned the terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023. He affirmed his support for the disarmament of Hamas and pledged to exclude it from the future governance of Gaza and the entire Palestinian territory. He affirmed his commitment to combating hate speech and promised a thorough overhaul of Palestinian governance.
France will be attentive to the full implementation of each of the commitments made to it. This renewed Palestinian Authority is a necessary condition for the success of the essential negotiations that will have to be resumed to reach an agreement on each of the final status issues. It is also within this framework that I will be able to decide to establish an embassy to the State of Palestine, once all the hostages held in Gaza have been released and a ceasefire has been established.
France's demands on Israel will be no less stringent. Along with its European partners, it will base the level of its cooperation on the steps it takes to end the war and negotiate peace.
It is through this path that we will obtain a sovereign, independent and demilitarized State of Palestine, bringing together all of its territories, recognizing Israel, and being recognized by Israel, in a region which will finally know peace.
I also expect our Arab and Muslim partners, who have not yet done so, to keep their commitment to recognize the State of Israel and to have normal relations with it once the State of Palestine has been established. In this way, we will demonstrate a dual recognition for the benefit of peace and security for all in the Middle East.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is our peace plan. It establishes a demanding mechanism for emerging from the war and entering a decisive phase of negotiation. It allows Israeli-Palestinian peace to be the first pillar of a new architecture of peace and security in the Near and Middle East. It also gives credibility to the possibility of greater economic integration.
Nothing will be possible without the Israeli authorities fully embracing our renewed ambition to finally achieve a two-state solution. I am aware of their reluctance and their fears. I listen with great respect to the Israeli people, their sadness and their fatigue, and I want to believe that the Israeli authorities will also hear them and will be able to commit themselves in turn. I know that the Israeli people and their leaders can muster the strength to do so.
I remember as a young man learning of the terrible assassination of Yitzhak Rabin nearly 30 years ago, killed for wanting peace. Just as death was about to claim him, the heroic warrior of the State of Israel had just uttered these words: "I have waged war as long as there was no chance of peace." That chance exists today. 142 states are offering this peace, their hands outstretched and ready to be shaken.
So, yes, the time has come to stop the war in Gaza, the massacres, the death, immediately. The urgency demands it. The time has come for Israel to live in peace and security, from Galilee to the Red Sea, by the Dead Sea, by the Sea of Galilee, and by Jerusalem. The time has come to no longer discuss anywhere the existence of a State of Israel and to make it a given.
The time has come to do justice to the Palestinian people and thus recognize a State of Palestine, a brother and neighbor, in Gaza and the West Bank, and through Jerusalem. The time has come to drive the ugly face of terrorism from these lands and to build peace. Yes, building peace is what brings us together here. And this is the hope that can be built. As some begin a new year, it is a choice to be made and it is our duty. Peace is much more demanding, much more difficult than any war.
But the time has come."
Emmanuel Macron
Comment: Next to nothing, words...are a start. How many deaths did it take?