102 Former French and British Diplomats Call for Joint Sanctions on Israel, Citing Ethnic Cleansing

One hundred and two former French and British diplomats have put their names to a letter demanding their governments jointly sanction Israel, arguing that continued inaction will foreclose any future Palestinian state.

The letter, published Saturday in the French outlet Le Monde, calls on Paris and London to act together "to uphold international law in Palestine." Signatories include former British ambassadors to the United Nations Jeremy Greenstock and Emyr Jones Parry, and former French Middle East directors Yves Aubin de la Messuziere and Denis Bauchard, drawing on decades of postings across the region.

"Palestinian house demolitions and rampant settler violence, with the connivance of the Israeli army and police, amount to ethnic cleansing," the letter states.

Nicholas Hopton, a former UK ambassador to Iran, Qatar and Yemen who signed the letter, told Al Jazeera the language was not the diplomats' own invention. "They are taken from the international legal bodies, the UN, those who have been observing from a neutral position and with expertise," he said.

The letter sets out specific, concrete demands: suspending the EU-Israel and UK-Israel trade agreements, halting arms transfers and military cooperation with Israel, banning trade with Israeli settlements, and prohibiting citizens of both countries from buying property on occupied Palestinian land. It also calls for guaranteed humanitarian access to Gaza through UNRWA and other UN agencies, with protected access for journalists, diplomats and parliamentarians.

Hopton said the immediate trigger was Israel's renewed push to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank. "There is a move by the Israeli government to allow settlements to be created in the West Bank in a way that would almost realistically prevent a future Palestinian state being able to be created there," he said.

The letter arrives roughly a year after France and the UK recognised a Palestinian state in 2025, a step the signatories argue now needs to be "made real by urgent action." They trace their countries' responsibility to the post-World War I mandates the UK and France held over Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, which shaped the region's modern borders.

The letter is not directed at Israel alone. It describes Palestinian leadership as "unrepresentative and dysfunctional" and calls on it to keep the internationally recognised state "democratic and law-abiding," pointing to elections scheduled for November as a chance for renewal.

Still, Hopton said the decisive actor remains outside Europe. "The United States has the most influence over the actions of the Israeli government," he told Al Jazeera, warning that continued inaction "will create a longer-term, irreconcilable problem and store up future violence and future tragedies."

The letter lands against the backdrop of Israel's war on Gaza, which has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians since October 2023, according to reporting on the conflict. A ceasefire took effect in October 2025, but Israeli attacks have continued, killing at least 1,285 Palestinians since, according to Gaza's Ministry of Health.