A European diplomatic uprising: “Palestine is being erased before our eyes”

Washington, DC – Agencies: More than 100 former French and British ambassadors urged France and Britain in an article published yesterday in Le Monde to act together to ensure respect for international law in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. The 102 diplomats wrote that France and Britain, which recognized the State of Palestine in 2025, must translate this recognition into concrete measures, accusing Israel of undermining the possibility of a Palestinian state and condemning the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the violence and destruction in the West Bank. (See page 13). They warned that “Palestine is being erased before our eyes,” pointing to the critical situation of two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, “trapped in an area comprising 30% of a destroyed and famine-stricken land, deprived of shelter and medicine.” The diplomats added, “In East Jerusalem and other areas of the West Bank, the destruction of homes and widespread settler violence, with the complicity of the Israeli army and police, amount to ethnic cleansing.” Meanwhile, the first eight months of 2026 recorded the highest annual toll of Palestinians killed by Israeli settler attacks since data collection began in 2019, according to the Anti-Wall and Settlement Resistance Authority. In addition, leaders in the Israeli military warned Israel’s political leadership that the West Bank is approaching a wave of violent escalation, amid ongoing settler violence and the expansion of illegal outposts across the region, as reported by Israel’s Channel 12. According to the report, ordinary Palestinians in the West Bank may begin to mobilize if settler violence continues unabated.