A coalition of 102 former French and British diplomats is calling on their respective governments to jointly sanction Israel, warning that current policies in the occupied Palestinian territory threaten to permanently undermine the possibility of a Palestinian state. Al Jazeera and AFP reported this development on Saturday.
Published initially in the French outlet Le Monde, the open letter urges London and Paris to act together to uphold international law and push for equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians. The signatories bring together decades of diplomatic experience across the Middle East.
The group includes former British ambassadors to the United Nations Jeremy Greenstock and Emyr Jones Parry, alongside former French Middle East directors Yves Aubin de la Messuziere and Denis Bauchard.
The letter explicitly criticizes the demolition of Palestinian homes and ongoing settler violence, stating that these actions occur with the connivance of the Israeli military and police. The signatories argue that such conditions reflect policies that distance Israel from the standards of a genuine democracy.
Nicholas Hopton, a former UK ambassador and one of the letter signatories, told Al Jazeera that the strong language used in the document originates from neutral international legal bodies and United Nations observations rather than the diplomats themselves.
This diplomatic pressure mounts against the backdrop of the protracted conflict in Gaza, where humanitarian concerns persist and international scrutiny regarding adherence to international law continues to intensify.
