The announcement by French President Emmanuel Macron that France will formally recognize a Palestinian state in September marks a significant geopolitical shift, making it the first G7 nation to do so. The decision has been hailed by Palestinian and Arab officials, as a step toward justice, while it has also drawn sharp condemnation from Israel and the U.S framing it as a reckless reward for Hamas.
Source: BBC
Yet, beyond the diplomatic maneuvers, Macron’s statement calling for an immediate ceasefire, hostage release, and humanitarian aid barely scratch the surface of the horrific reality unfolding in Gaza, where starvation is not just a byproduct of war but a calculated instrument of control. The situation in Gaza today is not merely a humanitarian crisis. It is a manifestation of necropolitics where sovereign power decides who may live and who must die through deliberate deprivation.
The Hunger Doctrine: Israel’s Necropolitical Menu
Since Israel’s military campaign began in response to Hamas’ October 7 attack, Gaza has been subjected to a siege so severe that it has transformed into an open-air graveyard. Over 59,000 Palestinians have been killed, but the dead are not just casualties of airstrikes and artillery, they are victims of a methodical strangulation.
The UN reports that one in five children in Gaza City is now malnourished, with aid organizations warning of mass starvation. Israel’s control over all entry points into Gaza, restricting food, water, and medical supplies has turned survival into a privilege rather than a right.
Source: Al Jazeera
This is not an accident of war but a policy of attrition. When a state regulates the flow of sustenance to a besieged population, it exercises the ultimate power –the power to let die. Israel’s vehement denials of a “siege” and its assertions that Hamas alone bears responsibility for malnutrition ring hollow.
When aid trucks are blocked, when flour becomes a luxury, and when children waste away in plain sight clearly demonstrates that, this is not collateral damage but a form of governance through death.
Recognition without Liberation: The Limits of Symbolism
France recognition of Palestine, while symbolically significant, does little to alter the immediate reality in Gaza. Macron’s call for Palestinian statehood is couched in conditions like demilitarization, security guarantees for Israel, and a rebuilt Gaza, which echo the same frameworks that have perpetuated Palestinian subjugation for decades. The recognition itself is an empty gesture if it does not challenge the structures that make Gaza uninhabitable.
Palestinian Authority officials have welcomed the move, but what does recognition mean when Palestinians in Gaza are being erased not just politically but physically?Â
The necropolitical calculus here is clear, as statehood is debated in the halls of the UN while people are reduced to skeletal figures, their bodies testifying to the hollowness of diplomatic victories. The French decision, though historic, does not force open the borders of Gaza, nor does it compel Israel to end its blockade. It is a performative act in a theater where the audience is dying offstage.
The International Complicity in Genocide
The U.S. and UK’s rejection of Palestinian statehood is not just a political stance –it is an endorsement of Gaza’s slow extermination. By refusing to recognize Palestine while continuing to arm Israel, these nations are complicit in the machinery of death.Â
The UK’s foreign affairs committee has urged immediate recognition, warning that delay means there may soon be “no state left to recognize.” This is not hyperbole –it is an acknowledgment that Gaza is being dismantled, not just militarily but existentially.
Meanwhile, Israel’s narrative that a Palestinian state would be a “launch pad” for its destruction reinforces the logic of elimination. Netanyahu’s rhetoric frames Palestinians as an existential threat, justifying their eradication through both bullets and hunger. This is necropolitics in its purest form, the assertion that some populations must be kept in a state of bare life, where survival is contingent on the whims of the sovereign.
The Right to Live vs. The Power to Kill
France’s recognition of Palestine is a moral stance, but morality does not feed starving children. The real test of international commitment is not in symbolic gestures but in dismantling the systems that make Gaza a laboratory of human suffering. If the world truly believes in Palestinian statehood, it must first ensure that Palestinians are allowed to live.
The people of Gaza are not just dying from bombs; they are being erased through bureaucracy, through checkpoints, through the cold arithmetic of calorie counts. This is not war. This is necropolitical domination –the slow sanctioned murder of a people under the guise of security. Until the international community confronts this reality, recognition will remain a eulogy, not liberation.
