After a deadly start to the year, including the most deadly raid carried out by the Israeli army in the West Bank since 2005, at the end of February, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is worrying. France is “extremely concerned” by the wave of violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories, assured the French Minister of Foreign Affairs during a hearing Tuesday evening before the National Assembly.
Catherine Colonna lamented the “continuous degradation”. “Violence begets violence and we called on each other to behave differently,” added the minister. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been on the rise since the beginning of the year. And six Palestinians, including the author of a recent attack that claimed the lives of two Israelis, were killed on Tuesday in a new Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank.
Catherine Colonna did not respond directly to the deputies questioning her on the possibility of taking sanctions against the Israeli government, but she recalled France’s recent condemnations relating in particular to the “violence” committed by Israeli settlers in the against Palestinian civilians.
“Don’t say that we are not doing anything,” also launched the minister. “The United Nations Security Council has adopted a presidential statement calling for an end to the violence,” she added, stressing that this had “been the subject of a lot of effort” by France and its partners in particular the United States.
She also underlined the “striking contrast between the daily violence which is clearly on the rise and the promises of what the Abraham Accords were to bring”. The Abraham Accords had launched the process of normalization between Israel and several Arab countries.
Catherine Colonna judged that these agreements, although “insufficient”, remained “useful because they can lower the tension”. She also repeated France’s position, which advocates the restoration of a “political horizon in favor of a two-state solution” to bring “a just and lasting peace” to Israelis and Palestinians.