After France's liberation by Allied forces, David Ben-Gurion was confident that Charles de Gaulle would assist him in the founding of a Jewish state. On 12 January 1949 France recognized the existence of Israel and supported the decision for Israel to join the United Nations.
France is the friend of both the Israelis and the Palestinians. France has strong historical, cultural and human ties with Israel. France was one of the first countries to recognize the new State and establish diplomatic relations, as early as 1949.
Political relations
France has established a robust bilateral relationship with Israel, marked by constant commitment to the its existence and security. France was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, on 11 May 1949.
France reiterates its commitment to respect for international humanitarian law and the imperative of protecting civilians in the occupied territories, which is Israel's responsibility.
France, the former colonial power, enjoys friendly relations with Lebanon and has often provided support to the Lebanese.
In that respect, Israel's wealth, as of now, stands close to 44 thousand dollars per citizen, which is higher than some of the most advanced and most-developed economies such as the UK (40.4 thousand dollars per person), Japan (40.1 thousand dollars per person), France (39.9 thousand dollars per person), South Korea ( ...
Relations between the European Union and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) were established in 1975 as part of the Euro-Arab Dialogue. The EU is a member of the Quartet and is the single largest donor of foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority.
Among the G20, nine countries (Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Turkey) have recognized Palestine as a state while ten countries (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States) have not.
Israel's close friendship with the United States has been a linchpin of its foreign policy since the establishment of the state. Until the Iranian Revolution and the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979, Israel and Iran maintained close ties.
Cuba severed relations in September 1973, and the most recent government does not recognize it.
Yearly Trade
The most common destination for the exports of Israel are United States ($17B), China ($5.04B), Palestine ($4.16B), India ($2.82B), and Germany ($2.22B).
France is actively involved in very close defense relations with its principal European allies, the UK and Germany, as well as with the United States.
France believes that Jerusalem must become the capital of the two States." France does not recognize Israel's sovereignty over East Jerusalem, which France considers an "occupied territory under the Fourth Geneva Convention".
The UK opposes all unilateral actions that will make peace harder to achieve, whether taken by the Palestinian or Israeli side, including the Government of Israel's measures against the Palestinian Authority, announced on 6 January.
Although Israel has been admitted to the United Nations, as of December 2020, Israel was recognized by only 165 of the U.N.'s 193 member countries. A subset of U.N. members—most of which are Arab countries and/or Muslim counties—have refused to recognize Israel as a sovereign nation.
While the State of Israel was established on 15 May 1948 and admitted to the United Nations, a Palestinian State was not established. The remaining territories of pre-1948 Palestine, the West Bank - including East Jerusalem- and Gaza Strip, were administered from 1948 till 1967 by Jordan and Egypt, respectively.
Ireland was the first member of the European community to recognise the Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1980, with others following a few months later, and became a stalwart advocate for the two-state solution, hosting and meeting with Yasser Arafat on several occasions, sometimes to the ire of the Israeli ...
China is one of Israel's closest economic allies in East Asia where both countries have placed considerable importance on maintaining a strategic and supportive economic relationship.
Israel and North Korea do not have official diplomatic relations, and unofficial communications between the two countries are hostile. North Korea does not recognise Israel, denouncing it as an "imperialist satellite state".
Although it had voted against the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, Turkey recognized the State of Israel in 1949.
The United States was the first country to recognize Israel as an independent state on May 14, 1948, when President Harry Truman issued a statement of recognition following Israel's proclamation of independence on the same date.
The two countries have never established diplomatic relations; in 1947, Saudi Arabia voted against the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, which aimed to split the territory of British Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state. As of 2023, negotiations to establish diplomatic relations were ongoing.
Israel was founded as a homeland for the Jewish people seventy-five years ago, but a significant portion of its population has always been Arab. Today, Arab citizens of Israel—distinct from Arabs living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip—remain the country's largest minority group.