As COP29 brings world leaders together to address the climate crisis, one pressing question looms large for me as a Palestinian: Should a country that systematically destroys both the environment and the lives of an entire people be allowed a seat at the table?

The climate summit’s mission is clear: to protect our shared planet for future generations, to safeguard the vulnerable, and to uphold principles of sustainability and justice. Yet, as someone who has grown up witnessing the devastation of my homeland, I struggle to understand how a state responsible for environmental ruin and human rights abuses is given space in this global discussion.

Israel’s participation in COP29 not only insults Palestinians but also undermines the very values the summit claims to uphold.

For Palestinians, environmental justice and human rights are intertwined necessities for survival, not distant ideals.

My family’s roots in Palestine stretch back generations. We are tied to the land and environment in a way that is sacred.

Growing up, I heard stories of my family’s struggle to remain on our land, to plant trees, and to cultivate what little they had despite constant threats of dispossession and destruction.

This connection to our homeland is about survival, heritage and identity. Today, I grieve for loved ones lost to bombings and for places that held precious memories, now reduced to rubble.

For Palestinians, this relentless loss and violence have become a painful reality. Israel’s policies in Gaza, the West Bank, and beyond are erasing the future of Palestinians. They strip us of our land, rob us of resources, and prevent even the basic conditions for a dignified and safe life.

This reality stands in direct contradiction to COP29’s mission to safeguard the future for all people. How can we, as Palestinians, be expected to consider climate justice when we cannot even access clean water, shelter or electricity?

Green future?

In Gaza, relentless bombings have taken countless lives and left a devastating mark on the environment. The destruction of water infrastructure, electricity grids and homes has poisoned the land and air, bringing extreme environmental degradation.

Our land, already limited in resources, is forced to bear the brunt of these attacks, leaving families in uninhabitable conditions. In the face of such devastation, how can we speak of a “green future” when the very soil beneath our feet is scorched by violence?

Most of Gaza’s infrastructure – schools, homes, hospitals and universities – has been destroyed or damaged, an obliteration that seems designed to make life unlivable. In the past year alone, more bombs have been dropped on Gaza per square mile than in any other region in modern history, carving deep scars into the land and the lives of the people who remain.

Israel has systematically targeted Gaza’s water wells, leaving 97 percent of its water undrinkable, poisoning what should be a basic right.

In the West Bank, the situation is no less severe. Israel diverts the majority of water resources to illegal settlements, creating an almost surreal contrast: lush swimming pools and green parks for settlers while Palestinian communities struggle for drinking water and irrigation for crops. This imbalance is compounded by the systematic uprooting of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian olive trees – trees that have provided families with sustenance and income for generations.

This calculated destruction erodes both the land and the livelihoods of Palestinians, yet it continues largely unchecked by the international community.

How can such environmental devastation, combined with deliberate human suffering, be allowed to persist?

Environmental catastrophe

This systematic theft and destruction of resources cannot be separated from the broader environmental crisis. The suffering in Gaza is not an isolated humanitarian crisis; it is an ecological catastrophe in the making.

When water wells are destroyed, soil is poisoned and entire neighborhoods are reduced to rubble, the land itself becomes inhospitable. How can the world overlook this?

For too many years, the international community has turned the other way as Israel abuses the environment and human rights, normalizing its presence on the global stage and allowing it to participate in international organizations. This normalization persists despite the fact that Israel has been classified as an apartheid state by Amnesty International and others.

Israel’s policies create a reality in which the climate crisis is not a distant threat for Palestinians but an immediate reality shaped by a militarized occupation that makes life unsustainable.

These are not abstract environmental challenges; they are personal tragedies that affect families like mine every day. My family, like countless others, faces the harsh choice of remaining in peril or becoming refugees.

Deprived of their most basic rights, enduring bombings, and denied access to clean water, they wonder if they will be the next to flee from their homes – or worse, be buried beneath them.

Allowing Israel a platform at COP29 legitimizes actions that directly contradict the values this summit is meant to uphold. How can COP 29 claim to protect our planet’s future while ignoring the devastating policies in Gaza and the West Bank that create an ecological and humanitarian catastrophe?

The international community cannot, in good conscience, ignore this reality. What message does it send to invite those responsible for such profound environmental and human devastation to discussions on climate and sustainability?

Can COP29, with all its lofty goals of justice and preservation, truly look Palestinians in the eye and assure us of its commitment to a better future for everyone – while engaging a state that actively seeks to erase us?

Does this vision of a sustainable future truly include us? Or will Palestinians once again be left out, while the world debates and shapes a future that remains, for us, a mere hope overshadowed by policies designed to obliterate the very possibility of our survival?

COP29 should be a space for those committed to protecting our shared planet – not for states whose actions actively undermine that goal. Allowing Israel a voice here weakens the climate agenda and compromises the principles of justice and humanity on which COP29 should stand.

Why do we always compromise on our values and principles for Israel? Why must international organizations accept Israel’s actions, endangering the existence of values the world has fought to uphold?

We should not allow any nation to act with impunity.

For Palestinians, justice and environmental protection are not luxuries but necessities for survival. The world must take a stand – for people and for the planet.

Excluding Israel from COP29 would have sent a powerful message that the international community will not tolerate ecological destruction, human rights abuses, or the denial of a people’s right to their land for political expediency. It would have been a stand for all who suffer, for all who hope, and for a world where everyone has the right to a safe and sustainable future.

Ahmed Najar is a Palestinian political analyst and a playwright.

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• COP29
• Operation Al-Aqsa Flood

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