France has reiterated its support for international legal institutions while stopping short of endorsing a recent UN report that found Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
The remarks come as several European nations, including France, moved this past month to formally recognise Palestine as a state. The move has added new momentum to international pressure over Israel’s conflict in Gaza.
In an interview with Business Day shortly after the summit on a two-state solution in New York, French ambassador to SA David Martinon said the report of the UN would still need to undergo court processes.
“We do take note of its conclusions, but it’s a report. It’s not a vote of the UN General Assembly and it is, most of all, not a decision of a court,” Martinon said. “If you bring allegations of genocide we’re talking legal terms, and so it has to revolve to a court.”
UN report boosts SA case on Gaza
France’s cautious response follows the publication of a UN investigative report earlier in September that found Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide, which is the most serious accusation under international law. The report has intensified calls for accountability and bolstered SA’s landmark case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), filed in December 2023.
During his address to the summit held on September 22, President Cyril Ramaphosa called for the “immediate and full implementation of resolutions of the UN, as well as the provisional measures and advisory opinions of the International Court of Justice”.
Palestinian statehood
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an address to the general assembly on Friday, denied Israel was committing genocide. He said the recognition of Palestine as a state was a “mark of shame”.
Humanitarian aid is a serious matter and this is why we absolutely need a ceasefire so that we can provide massive humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
— David Martinon, French ambassador to SA
Other countries that have recognised Palestine’s statehood include Belgium, Monaco, Luxembourg, Malta, Britain, Canada, Australia and Portugal.
Martinon said: “Humanitarian aid is a serious matter and this is why we absolutely need a ceasefire so that we can provide massive humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
“The flotilla is something else. We are not convinced by this endeavor. We see it as using a political, dramatic humanitarian situation for political purposes.
“So that is an absolute necessity if you want to change the atmosphere in the region and most of all, the commitment to exclude and to disarm Hamas from the whole process to exclude Hamas from any type of government in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank, and to make sure that Hamas would be dismantled and dissolved.”
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