Both the French and British heads of state said that they decided to recognize Palestine in order to pursue peace. “The time for peace has come because we’re just a few moments away from no longer being able to seize peace,” said French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday before the U.N. A day earlier, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a recorded speech, “In the face of growing horror in the Middle East, we are acting to keep alive the possibility of peace.”

What Macron and Starmer failed to mention, however, is that they — and many of their fellow nations now pushing for Palestinian statehood — continue to supply weapons and military support to Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is leading an intensification of Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza and an expansion of settlements and annexations of Palestinian land in the West Bank, responded with defiance to the statehood calls of Western nations: “There will not be a Palestinian state west of the Jordan.”

Last week, a U.N. human rights commission concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. The commission’s chair, Navi Pillay, said the international community is under the “legal obligation to use all means that are reasonably available to them to stop the genocide in Gaza.”

Yet the nations whose leaders are calling for peace keep the flow of armaments moving.

“The absence of action to stop it amounts to complicity,” Pillay said.

Who Recognizes Palestine as a State but Still Arms Israel? 

Currently 157 of the 193 U.N. member states recognize a Palestinian state. The U.K., France, Canada, Luxembourg, and Australia have recently recognized Palestinian statehood but continue to send arms and military equipment to Israel.

In September 2024, following widespread pressure and protests, the U.K. government enacted a partial arms embargo, halting export licenses on some weapons to Israel out of concern they were being used by the Israeli military to commit human rights violations. The embargo was limited to only 30 of the total 300 export licenses to Israel, but the U.K. pledged to no longer send F-35 fighter jet parts directly to Israel. F-35 jets have been used to drop bombs in Gaza, including operations that have killed civilians in so-called “safe zones.”

Graphic: The Intercept

However, a May report — led by the Palestinian Youth Movement, Workers for a Free Palestine, and Progressive International — found that the U.K. government continued its direct shipments of F-35 components to Israel. The report also found the U.K. had shipped thousands of bombs, grenades, missiles, tanks, and firearm components to Israel over the past year.

A recent media report by Israeli publication Ynet also indicated that the British government is continuing to send arms to Israel despite its Palestinian statehood announcement.

In early 2024, Canada’s government said it would halt granting export licenses to Canadian weapons manufacturers looking to sell to Israel. Then, in March 2024, its legislature passed a non-binding measure to halt government sales of weapons to Israel.

However, despite claims by the Canadian government that only “non-lethal” goods are being sold to Israel, weapons exports continued through several loopholes. The government continued to honor export licenses granted before January 2024, allowing for more than $94 million in military goods to be sold to Israel from Canada, and $83 million more in explosives made in Canada but sold to Israel through a U.S. government deal, according to reporting by The Maple.

A separate Palestinian Youth Movement report from July further detailed the continued flow of weapons from Canada to Israel, highlighting dozens of shipments between October 2023 and July 2025, carrying more than 400,000 bullets, cartridges, and aircraft components, including F-35 fighter jet parts.

The French government similarly contradicts its public statements on apparent halt to arms sales and shipments to Israel, according to a June report from Palestinian Youth Movement and other organizations.

During an October 2024 radio interview, Macron said, “The priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza” and added that “France is not delivering any” weapons to Israel. The June report – published by Progressive International, Palestinian Youth Movement, the French Jewish Union for Peace, BDS France, and Stop Arming Israel France – revealed that between October 2023 and April 2025, France had delivered $10 million worth in military goods, including 15 million bombs, grenades, torpedoes, missiles, rocket launchers, flamethrowers, artillery, and rifles.

The French government has insisted that military goods sold to Israel are used only for the Iron Dome’s defensive missile systems. However, critics have noted that such defensive weapons enable Israel to continue its genocidal campaign in Gaza and its annexation in the West Bank.

Luxembourg, which also recently recognized Palestinian statehood, has said it exports weapons to Israel but only sends defensive weapons, according to reports.

Australia has also been adamant that it does not send weapons for use by the Israeli military, with its acting Prime Minister Richard Marles calling claims that it does as “misinformation.” But political opposition leaders and rights groups have been quick to underline the country’s role in manufacturing components of F-35 jets, and is a crucial part of the supply chain to manufacture the fighter planes.

Some European nations, however, have followed up their words with action. Belgium, which also joined the recent statehood calls, recently moved to enact a total arms embargo on military goods to Israel and is lobbying for the European Union to do the same.

Spain, which moved to recognize a Palestinian state in May 2024, this week enacted a total arms embargo on Israel (with some exceptions), banning the transfer of all weapons, dual-use technology, and military equipment to Israel, including the use of its ports or airports for such exports. It also banned imports of goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The Spanish government had already begun to cancel arms deals with major weapons manufacturers who are selling arms to Israel.

Norway, which also recognized Palestine as a state in May 2024, divested parts of its $11 trillion sovereign fund from 11 Israeli companies tied to the Israeli military’s jet program after global pressure, including from the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.

The largest exporter of weapons to Israel remains the United States, which criticized calls to recognize the Palestinian state a “reward for Hamas” this week.

A “Performance of Justice”

President and CEO of the Center for International Policy Nancy Okail welcomed the new calls for Palestinian statehood as a crucial step in the right direction, saying that such gestures further isolate Israel diplomatically. But she criticized what she called an “accountability gap” between these governments’ words and their actions with respect to Israel.

“Recognition of Palestinian statehood is largely symbolic unless it’s paired with halting arms transfers.”

She pointed to countries such as the U.K., which is failing to uphold its own human rights laws in continuing to send weapons to Israel and has also been an obstacle to the International Criminal Court’s war crime proceedings against Israeli leaders.

“Such recognition of Palestinian statehood is largely symbolic unless it’s paired with halting arms transfers that actually fuels the genocide, otherwise, that would be like a performance of justice while complicit in violence,” she said. “And this is what creates an accountability gap, where you have states that are upholding the law in theory while breaking it in practice.”

Amnesty International USA has been calling for a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel even prior to the start of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza. Their proposed embargo would include the transfer of all arms, whether for military or security purposes, including surveillance equipment and infrastructure. It also calls for an end to military and security training relationships between Israel and other governments. The group views such embargo as necessary to end the genocide, the blockade on Gaza, the occupation of Palestinian territory, and Israel’s apartheid system.

“If governments want to put meaning behind these gestures or words of condemnation, then these are the type of actions that need to be taken,” said Elizabeth Rghebi, the Middle East and North Africa advocacy director for Amnesty International USA. Rghebi also said countries need to uphold the arrest warrants put forth by the ICC.

Okail called the unconditional U.S. support of Israel “one of the biggest hurdles” toward meaningfully recognizing a Palestinian state.

Okail maintained that the concessions by governments like the U.K. do show that the ongoing demonstrations across the globe, from Europe to the U.S., are having an impact internationally but also domestically within Israeli politics.

“Because the people are seeing how their image is being portrayed globally, they’re seeing all the protests against them,” she said. “They’re seeing that they are losing the unwavering sympathy that they used to have.”

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