![Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar addresses a joint press conference with Germany's foreign minister at the Foreign Ministry in Berlin, on June 5, 2025. [John MACDOUGALL / AFP/ Getty Images]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/GettyImages-2218032117.jpg?fit=920%2C613&ssl=1)
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar criticized on Thursday French President Emmanuel Macron’s “eagerness” to establish a Palestinian state, calling on him to establish it on French territory.
“If Macron is so eager for a Palestinian state, he is welcome to establish one in France’s vast territory” Sa’ar posted on X.
Sa’ar also slammed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who the French presidency said had sent a letter to Macron a few days earlier condemning Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.
According to the letter, Abbas also demanded that Hamas immediately release Israeli captives in Gaza, lay down arms and prevent it from playing any role in governing the Gaza Strip.
Abbas’s message came days ahead of an international conference in support of the two-state solution scheduled to take place at the United Nations headquarters in New York from17 to 20 June, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia.
“President Macron is thrilled, and sees ‘hope.’ What hope exactly? Israel will not base its policy or its future on empty illusions that have blown up in our faces countless times” Sa’ar said.