Patrice Leclerc mayor of Gennevilliers a northern suburb of Paris on Friday announced his decision to recognize the state of Palestine saying that the decision will be officially signed next Monday.
Leclerc said in a statement that the French parliament in December 2014 passed a draft resolution urging the government to recognize the independent state of Palestine.
He explained that the French foreign minister at the time Laurent Fabius said that in case no agreement is reached in the Palestinian-Israeli talks France will recognize Palestine but nothing has been done.
The Palestinian-Israeli negotiations have been suspended since April 2014 due to Israel’s refusal to halt its settlement construction and accept the 1967 borders as a basis for the two-state solution.
Leclerc pointed out that the French president Emmanuel Macron refuses to recognize the Palestinian state calling on other French municipalities to follow Gennevilliers’ steps to push the government to recognize Palestine.
The Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to meet with European Union foreign ministers in Brussels next Monday.
The Palestinian foreign minister to the European Union Abdulrahim al-Farra on Friday said that Abbas will ask the European ministers to recognize the state of Palestine on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Over the past two years more than 10 European parliaments have called on their governments to recognize the state of Palestine but governments said they will make this step in an appropriate time.
The Gennevilliers municipality move came in response to the US recognition of Jerusalem with its eastern and western parts as the capital of Israel.
