PARIS — First it was the British and the Irish. Then the Swedes and the Spanish. And on Tuesday, the French, too, added their weight to the push for recognition of a Palestinian state.

The vote in the French lower house of Parliament favoring such a step was a largely symbolic move. But it was the fifth such gesture in two months, and arguably the most important, in what has amounted to a cascade of support for the Palestinian cause and a widening torrent of criticism of Israeli policy across Europe.

Though the vote is unlikely to affect France’s foreign policy, it nevertheless carries particular resonance coming from a country with the largest Muslim and Jewish populations in Europe.

As such, France itself has become something of a proxy playing field for the Arab-Israeli conflict, which this summer spilled over into the streets of cities around the country with sometimes violent protests during Israel’s military campaign against Hamas.