More than 100 former senior French and British diplomats have published an unprecedented joint letter accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing in the Palestinian territories and calling on their governments to impose concrete penalties, including arms embargoes and trade restrictions, to preserve the prospect of a Palestinian state.
The letter, signed by 52 French and 50 British former diplomats — many with extensive experience in the Middle East — was addressed to French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Andy Burnham and published simultaneously in The Guardian and Le Monde. Prominent signatories include two former British ambassadors to the United Nations, Jeremy Greenstock and Emyr Jones Parry, and former French Middle East directors Patrice Paoli, Yves Aubin de la Messuzière, and Denis Bauchard. The letter dispenses with customary diplomatic caution, stating that house demolitions and "rampant settler violence — with the connivance of the Israeli army and police" in annexed East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank amount to ethnic cleansing, and that "Palestine is being erased before our eyes."
The diplomats argue that Britain and France bear particular responsibility given their historical roles in shaping the modern Middle East and the fact that both countries — permanent members of the UN Security Council — recognised Palestinian statehood in 2025. They call on the two governments to take seven concrete steps: upholding rulings of the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court; suspending their respective trade and partnership agreements with Israel over human rights violations; halting arms transfers and bilateral military cooperation; insisting on unrestricted humanitarian access to Gaza; banning all trade with Israeli settlements; warning businesses against involvement in the controversial E1 settlement project in the West Bank; and criminalising the purchase of property on occupied Palestinian land by their citizens. The E1 project — a planned housing development that critics say would bisect the West Bank and sever East Jerusalem from Palestinian population centres — has drawn condemnation this week from eleven countries, including Britain and France, though that joint statement stopped short of threatening specific consequences.
The letter also acknowledges Hamas's "heinous crimes" in the October 7, 2023 attacks that triggered Israel's military campaign in Gaza, but insists "nothing justifies Israel's systematic policy of destruction of Gaza and its population." It notes that since a nominal ceasefire, more than 1,200 Palestinians have been killed, and that some 2 million people in Gaza are confined to roughly 30% of devastated territory, facing acute shortages of food, medicine, and shelter. In response to the broader diplomatic pressure, Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar stated that Israel "will not remain passive" and asserted that Jewish people have the right to live anywhere within Israel.
Why this matters: the letter reflects a hardening of establishment opinion in two of Europe's most influential capitals. While European governments have grown increasingly vocal in their criticism of Israeli settlement policy, they have largely stopped short of punitive measures. The former diplomats are explicitly pushing for that line to be crossed — arguing that recognition of Palestinian statehood must be backed by tangible action, or risk becoming meaningless. An internal debate has also emerged over whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing elections scheduled for 27 October, may be deliberately escalating tensions to provoke international reprisals for domestic political advantage — a calculation that, if accurate, makes the question of how Europe responds all the more consequential.