France’s Scheme for State of Palestine Would End Recognition of the State of Israel as a Jewish Homeland

President Emmanuel Macron’s plan for recognition of a Palestinian state during the upcoming gathering at the United Nations contains paragraphs that amount to ending the near universal recognition, including by France, of Israel as a Jewish homeland.At least one paragraph in the French proposal for a resolution at the late September UN General Assembly contains a call for a “right of return,” which would be afforded to Arabs who fled or were chased out of British-mandated Palestine in the course of the 1948 Israeli war of independence.The French proposal, initiated together with Saudi Arabia, will be discussed at New York during the assembly’s debate, in which Mr. Macron vowed to propose a resolution for recognition of a Palestinian state. Paragraph 39 in the French proposal, as issued on July 29 by the Paris foreign ministry, explicitly calls for an “affirmation of the right of return.”The right of return “is the end of Israel as the Jewish state,” the president of the Middle East Media Research Institute, Yigal Carmon, tells the Sun. On Tuesday Mr. Carmon cited on X the little-noticed paragraph, calling for millions of Palestinians now resident in neighboring countries to re-establish residence in current Israel.By including that paragraph, “France and the countries that will support its proposal adopt the joint Palestinian demand of Hamas and the PLO for the right of return into the State of Israel, effectively nullifying the recognition of the State of Israel,” Mr. Carmon writes. “Hello Yigal, this is an error we are correcting,” an Israeli-born adviser to Mr. Macron, Ofer Bronchtein, wrote in response to Mr. Carmon’s X posting. “The correct wording will be that ‘the parties will negotiate among themselves on a solution to the refugee issue.’” Mr. Bronchtein, a fluent Hebrew speaker, heads the Paris-based International Forum for Peace and serves as Mr. Macron’s special envoy for the Mideast, according to his Wikipedia page. He thanked Mr. Carmon’s for his “justified concern.” In response, Mr. Carmon wrote that he hoped Mr. Bronchtein would send him the corrected version, once it is published. “I can’t see them changing anything,” Mr. Carmon tells the Sun. “If they do, the Palestinians and Qataris will jump up and down. And paragraph 39 is not the only endorsement in the French document of the right of return.” He notes that paragraphs 7 and 14 also relate to the “right” by endorsing the Arab peace plan and UN General Assembly resolution 194. According to resolution 194, which was proposed by Arab UN members and approved in 1948, Palestinian Arabs who wish to return to homes they have lost that year’s war “and live at peace with their neighbors, should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date.” It adds that they are also entitled for compensation. The 1948 war, known in Arabic as the Nakba, or catastrophe, was launched by the armies of Arab countries following that year’s May 14 declaration of Israel’s independence. The document was based on the fact that the Jewish people’s cradle is the land of Israel. It also cites the 1947 UN resolutions that called for the partition of mandatory Palestine to two states, Jewish and Arab, which was summarily rejected by Arab countries. The General Assembly established a dedicated body for Palestinian refugees, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which, according to its website, in 1948 listed 750,000 refugees. Now, according to Unrwa, nearly 6 million dependents of these refugees are eligible for its services in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank, and Gaza.Israel’s current 9,842,000 citizens include 7.2 million Jews and 2.5 million mostly Arab non-Jews. The roughly 80 percent Jewish majority remained steady since 1948. If six million Arabs are to be added to the mix, the Jews of Israel will become a minority in the country.France’s proposal for recognizing a Palestinian state has already been endorsed by Britain, Australia, Canada, and others, even as the UN General Assembly has already adopted a resolution that recognizes Palestine as a “state under occupation.” Consecutive American presidents have blocked attempts for full UN membership of Palestine, arguing that such a state could only be established in negotiations with Israel.

France’s Scheme for State of Palestine Would End Recognition of the State of Israel as a Jewish Homeland

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