Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Palestinian Authority is Not About to Collapse, Says Mahmoud Abbas

JERUSALEM — The Palestinian Authority is not going to collapse, despite reports to the contrary, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said.

“The Palestinian Authority exists and it is here. It will be followed by a Palestinian state. The Palestinian Authority is one of our achievements and we won’t give it up,” Abbas said Wednesday night from Bethlehem, where he was attending Orthodox Christmas celebrations.

“We won’t accept any other scenarios,” he said.

Abbas also said that during meetings next week, the PLO will make an official decision on whether or not to cancel agreements signed over the years with Israel, including the security coordination enshrined in the Oslo Accords from the 1990s.

Prior to the speech, rumors had circulated that Abbas was planning to resign amid reports that he was seriously ill, including being treated for a stroke.

Abbas called on the international community to impose a peace agreement on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and said the Palestinians remain committed to a two-state solution.

“We shall remain on our land and Israel is not permitted to establish an apartheid state or a state with two systems,” he said.

Abbas also called for all West Bank settlements to be dismantled.

“This is our land and all the settlers must leave, he said, “and they will leave as was the case in the Gaza Strip.”

A message from our CEO & publisher 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.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

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.