French lawmakers are set to hold symbolic parliamentary votes over the next month on whether the government should recognise the Palestinian territories as an independent state, in a move likely to anger Israel.

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France’s Socialist Party has put forth a motion to be debated in the country’s National Assembly on November 28, which asks the government to “use the recognition of a Palestinian state as an instrument to achieve a definitive solution to the conflict”.

Meanwhile, the country’s far-left Front Gauche Party has floated a similar measure in the Senate, which will be taken up on December 11.

While France does not currently classify the Palestinian territories as a state, it has said it could extend recognition if it believed doing so would help promote peace between the Palestinians and Israel.

The two moves come after Sweden’s government officially recognised a state of Palestine last month, stirring Israeli fears that the decision could lead other European countries to do the same. Just weeks before, Britain’s parliament also recognised the Palestinian territories as an independent state in a non-binding vote, and similar moves have been proposed in Spain and Ireland.

It is unclear whether French lawmakers would vote in favour of the motions, an edict that has caused anger with some pro-Israel members on all sides of the political spectrum.

Even if lawmakers do back the motion, it is non-binding and would not force the government to change its diplomatic stance.

The foreign ministry on Wednesday did not specifically comment on the parliamentary vote, but repeated it was urgent to relaunch peace talks that would lead to a Palestinian state.

“France is attached to a two-state solution,” Spokesman Romain Nadal said in a daily news briefing. “This solution implies that there will be a recognition of a Palestinian state by France,” he said.

Palestinians seek statehood in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and blockaded Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as their capital - lands captured by Israel in a 1967 war, although Israeli soldiers and settlers withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

The latest round of fitful efforts to forge a two-state solution collapsed in April and Palestinians now see little choice but to push unilaterally for statehood and have encouraged international steps to recognise it.

Tension has risen between Palestinians and Israelis in recent weeks as disputes have mounted over Jewish access to one of Jerusalem’s holiest sites, revered by Muslims as Noble Sanctuary, where al-Aqsa mosque stands, and by Jews as the Temple Mount, where their biblical temples once stood.

(FRANCE 24 with AP, REUTERS)

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