How do you un-recognize a state that never existed in the first place? If you’ve gotten yourself in a position to ask this question, you’ve probably made some mistakes along the way.
And you are probably France.
In June 2025, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sent a letter to the governments of France and Saudi Arabia, condemning the October 7, 2023 attacks and outlining commitments the PA was ready to make, including elections within a year.
The following month, Emmanuel Macron responded with his own letter and subsequent public announcement. The French president told Abbas: “In light of your commitments, France will fully recognize Palestine as a State.”
It wasn’t the only part of the letter that explicitly tied Abbas’s promises to recognition. Macron noted the PA’s promise of “organizing presidential and general elections in 2026.” In the very next sentence, Macron wanted to “highlight in return France’s own commitment to fostering the implementation of the solution of two States, Israel and Palestine.”
After France officially recognized “Palestine,” Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot was asked about “this roadmap for elections.” Barrot responded: “The president of the republic would never have decided to recognize the State of Palestine if he hadn’t first obtained extremely firm commitments from the Palestinian Authority and its president, Mahmoud Abbas.”
Sadly, this weekend, Abbas once again pulled the football away at the last minute, leaving Macron flat on his back in the mud. Maybe next year, Abbas said.
Mahmoud Abbas is nearing 22 years into his four-year term, so the chances that he was going to pull a stunt like this were approaching 100 percent. Canada fell for it, too.
That 22 years is also why Abbas’s attempt to blame Israel for the delay is laugh-out-loud funny. Everyone has egg on their face, and not one of them deserves a shred of sympathy.
Macron is not a victim. Did he really expect Abbas to hold elections when he said he would? Is it possible that Macron bet on the promises of an authoritarian who is already in old age and is approaching Old Testament age?
The truth is that this was a collaboration between Abbas and Macron (and the Canadians, I suppose) to con the West into helping France weaken Israel diplomatically.
That, however, doesn’t change the fact that French government officials are on record repeatedly pinning these elections to the recognition of the “State of Palestine.” So while no one was actually fooled by this gimmick, a supposed democracy’s leader sure looks to have been in cahoots with antidemocracy forces to suppress freedom in the Middle East.
If the French don’t want to look like liars, they’ll take action against the Palestinians now. If they have honor, they’ll defend it.
Obviously, they’re not going to un-recognize “Palestine.” But what could they do?
Well, if the French were serious about democracy, they would do what they’ve been doing to Israel: turn up the pressure.
One avenue would be sanctions. France gives the Palestinians money and it could very easily withhold funds from a criminal, kleptocratic government that is—by France’s own lights—acting against the two-state solution.
If they really wanted to send a message, perhaps they could label, limit, or ban Palestinian imports. At the very least, Macron must push the EU to suspend any preferential trade treatment given to the Palestinian territories.
I suppose France’s public-development agency could also threaten to wind down its equity investment in the Bank of Palestine.
So there you have it. France has three main retaliatory options against the Palestinian Authority: boycott, divestment, sanctions.
After all, BDS is just an economic pressure engine to bring about the two-state solution, right? That’s what I read in the papers. And Macron is serious about defending a path to the two-state solution. He says so all the time. And Macron would never lie to us.