Palestinian territories

Middle East region / State visit (June 22-24, 2008)

Three weeks before the launch of his Union for the Mediterranean project, Nicolas Sarkozy, his presidency of the European Union imminent, visited Israel and the Palestinian territories. As the peace process stalled, this third visit to Israel in sixty years by a French Head of State demonstrated a determination to renew French-Israeli relations, in continuity with the visit by François Mitterrand in 1982 calling for the creation of a Palestinian State. The high point was Nicolas Sarkozy’s speech to the Knesset (Israeli parliament). “I am here because I am more than ever convinced that Israel’s security will only be truly assured with the birth of a second State, the State of Palestine.” Calling for a freeze in Israeli colonization, including in Jerusalem, which, he believes, “is destined to be the capital of both States”, the French President felt that “Israel must now do more to change the situation on the ground and improve the daily lot of the Palestinian population. The removal of major checkpoints is essential in this respect, in particular to ensure the relaunch of the economy.” During their visit, the presidential couple, invited to a private grand dinner given by Shimon Peres in his Jerusalem residence, went to the West Bank, where Nicolas Sarkozy met Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority. Before visiting the Church of the Nativity, built where Christ was born, with his wife, the French President lunched with Mahmoud Abbas, with whom he signed a statement, representing a real commitment to launch a French-Palestinian industrial park in Hindaza, in the Bethlehem region. During this three-day visit to the Middle East, the couple also visited the Ein Gedi kibbutz. On the banks of the Dead Sea, its palm groves are under threat from soil subsidence due to the withdrawal of highly salinated water. Shimon Peres presented the Sarkozys his project for a canal linking the Red Sea to the Dead Sea to prevent the Dead Sea from drying up.