Over 100 Former Diplomats Want France and the UK to Punish Israel Together
One hundred and two former diplomats from France and the United Kingdom signed an open letter published on August 22, 2026 by Le Monde. They are calling on France and the UK to jointly punish Israel for its actions in occupied Palestinian territory. The letter asks the two governments to pause trade deals with Israel, stop selling weapons to Israel, ban trade with Israeli settlements (communities built by Israel on land it captured in 1967), stop citizens from buying property on Palestinian land, and make sure aid can reach Gaza through UN agencies (Al Jazeera).
The people who signed include some well-known former officials. Jeremy Greenstock and Emyr Jones Parry are former British ambassadors to the United Nations. Yves Aubin de la Messuzière and Denis Bauchard are former French directors for the Middle East. Nicholas Hopton, a former UK ambassador to Iran, Qatar and Yemen, also signed and spoke to Al Jazeera about the effort (Al Jazeera).
The letter says France and the UK have a special duty because, after World War I, they were put in charge of governing Palestine, Syria and Lebanon by the League of Nations, an early version of the United Nations. France and the UK both recognised a Palestinian state in 2025. The signatories say that recognition should be a starting point for stronger action, not the final step. The letter calls for "equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians" and describes the demolition of Palestinian homes and violence by Israeli settlers as "ethnic cleansing" (Al Jazeera).
The letter also criticises the Palestinian leadership, calling it "unrepresentative and dysfunctional." It calls on that leadership to keep the recognised state "democratic and law-abiding," noting that elections are scheduled for November (Al Jazeera).
This letter comes as European pressure on Israel has been growing, though the European Union as a whole has taken limited action. In June 2026, France and allied countries looked at taking their own national measures against Israel over the West Bank after the EU blocked tougher steps (Reuters). On June 9, 2026, Britain, Canada, France and Norway announced coordinated sanctions targeting Israeli networks that fund settler violence in the West Bank (Reuters). On August 19, 2026, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said settler violence in the West Bank justifies France's sanctions against an Israeli minister (Reuters).
This is part of a larger trend of former European officials publicly pushing their governments to do more. In April 2026, 390 former European ministers and officials wrote that Israel is violating its trade agreement with the EU and called for stopping arms transfers (Financial Times). A year before that, a think tank called CEPS published a letter signed by 110 former EU ambassadors and 99 former ambassadors from France, Germany and Italy, demanding immediate EU action against Israel's actions in Gaza and the West Bank (CEPS). In October 2024, French President Emmanuel Macron said weapons used in Gaza should no longer be sold. Israel called that "a disgrace" and an arms embargo (Reuters).
The human cost remains severe. Al Jazeera reports that Israel's war on Gaza has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians since October 2023. A ceasefire took effect in October 2025. Since then, Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,285 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Ministry of Health (Al Jazeera).
The broader context here is a widening gap between what European governments say about international law and what they actually do. France and the UK recognised a Palestinian state in 2025, which gave former officials a legal basis to argue for real penalties, such as trade suspension and arms embargoes. But no European government has been willing to impose those penalties on its own. The letter's reference to the post-World War I mandates is a deliberate way of framing inaction as a betrayal of historical responsibility.
What makes this letter different from earlier ones is that it targets two specific countries together. Previous appeals went to the EU as a whole or to individual governments. This one asks France and the UK, which share mandate histories and both recognised Palestinian statehood in 2025, to act as a pair. Whether Paris and London decide that is enough reason to impose coordinated sanctions, or simply add the letter to the pile of past appeals, will show how far European governments are willing to go from words to action.
