More than 100 former British and French diplomats have called on their governments to suspend trade agreements with Israel and halt arms transfers, in a joint open letter published on Saturday that accuses Israel of carrying out "ethnic cleansing" in the occupied West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem.
The letter, signed by 102 retired envoys — 52 French and 50 British — was published in Le Monde and given to The Guardian. It is addressed to President Emmanuel Macron and to Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who took office in July, and lands four days after Israel's housing ministry opened bidding on the long-frozen E1 settlement project east of Jerusalem.
Signatories include the former British ambassadors to the United Nations Jeremy Greenstock and Emyr Jones Parry, the former Foreign Office Middle East director Edward Chaplin, and Sir Vincent Fean, a former consul general in Jerusalem. On the French side they include Yves Aubin de la Messuzière and Denis Bauchard, both former Middle East directors at the Quai d'Orsay, the former ambassador Bernard Bajolet, and Frédéric Desagneaux, a former consul general in Jerusalem. Many served in Egypt, Iran, Bahrain, Israel, Syria, Turkey, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The text says house demolitions and "rampant settler violence – with the connivance of the Israeli army and police" amount to ethnic cleansing, and that Israel is seeking "to destroy any prospect of an independent Palestinian state, showing contempt for the law, the rulings of the International Court of Justice and countless UN Security Council resolutions".
"Our two nations believe that those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity must be held to account. Only then can our governments rebut the accusation of double standards. That is why they must act together to uphold international law in Palestine."
The signatories also write that "the world no longer sees Israel as a genuine democracy – there is nothing democratic about depriving others of their rights and land". The French version is headed with the phrase "La Palestine s'efface sous nos yeux" — Palestine is being erased before our eyes. The former diplomats describe Hamas's attacks of 7 October 2023 as "heinous crimes" but argue they cannot justify Israel's subsequent conduct. French-language wire copy notes the letter does not address the disarmament of Hamas, Israel's stated precondition for withdrawing from Gaza.
Their demands centre on suspending the EU–Israel association agreement and the UK–Israel Trade and Partnership Agreement over alleged breaches of the human rights clauses underpinning both, alongside a ban on arms transfers, unrestricted humanitarian access to Gaza, restrictions on citizens buying property in settlements, and consequences for companies involved in settlement construction or financing. Secondary accounts describe seven specific measures in total; that framing has not been confirmed by the main wire agencies.
Neither the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office nor the Élysée had responded publicly to the letter as of Saturday afternoon.
It arrives amid an already sharpening British posture. On 19 August, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband called the E1 tender "an unacceptable and destructive act", summoned Israel's chargé d'affaires and promised that "in the coming weeks we will set out a comprehensive set of measures". A joint leaders' statement the following day, initially signed by seven countries and later joined by others including the European Commission, urged Israel to retract the plans and warned businesses off bidding. Israel's foreign minister, Gideon Sa'ar, has rejected the criticism, saying it is "absurd for Britain to lecture the Jewish people about where they may live".
Britain has suspended around 30 of some 350 arms export licences since September 2024, with an exemption for the F-35 programme, and paused free trade talks in May 2025. Bilateral trade stands at roughly £6.2bn a year. Ministers have previously warned that suspending preferential terms risks "significant economic disruption"; campaign groups say the proposed measures do not go far enough.
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