Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh received an invitation to attend.
So naturally, he issued a statement about how terrible Israel is.
Shtayyeh responded to the invitation by saying that the international community must pressure Israel and implement anti-Israel United Nations resolutions. He added, "We are proud of our relationship with Sweden, and we hope that it will serve as a model for the rest of Europe to recognize the Palestinian state in order to stand by truth and justice, as well as protect the two-state solution, in light of the systematic destruction that Israel is carrying out on the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state."
He didn't say a word about the environment.
In 2014, the Consulate General of Sweden in Jerusalem commissioned a team to see how well the Palestinian Environment Quality Authority was doing its job. The resulting 130 page report was polite, but withering in its criticism of how poorly the Palestinian organization tasked with protecting the environment did its job and how unprofessional it is:
The major capacity gaps in operations are:1. Not ensuring implementation on the ground through effective operating systems2. Not assuming lead functions for Environmental protection3. Not assuming the role as knowledge centre and expert organization functions4. Not sufficiently looking for partnership opportunities with other more resource-strong organizations5. Appling a reactive approach instead of providing leadership with clear priorities6. Insufficient monitoring and law enforcement that covers a marginal proportion of establishments.
It also found major gaps in management.
It's been nearly eight years. Has anything changed? It seems doubtful. But it is enormously difficult to find out the answer because there seems to be nobody interested in the subject.
What is clear is that the Palestinian leaders don't care about the environment - they want to hijack the environment issue to attack the Jews. Just as they don't care about women's rights, or Christian rights, or any other liberal talking point except as a means to use them as weapons against Jews.
It happens all the time. And it will happen in Stockholm. And the world leaders who will be there will smile and applaud as Shtayyeh says that Israel is the root of environmental evil.
