Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Mahmoud Abbas Accuses Israel of Destroying Palestinian Agriculture

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of violating “international laws related to the environment” at the United Nations climate conference in Paris Thursday.

But in the same speech, he also said that he was open to peace negotiations with Israel.

“Our hand is still extended in peace to our neighbors,” he said.

As for the environment, he accused Israel of wanton destruction of Palestinian agriculture.

“Our resources are being usurped, our trees are being uprooted, our agriculture is being destroyed,” Abbas said.

He insisted his government has made “great progress” in adopting climate change standards, but said that “continued Israeli occupation” infringed on its ability to do so.

Earlier at the conference, Abbas shook hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time in five years.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.