The draft of the “State of Palestine” constitution, authored by Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas’s constitution committee and released in February, makes it crystal clear that the P.A. should have no governance role in Gaza, should never be given a state and should forever lay to rest the fantasy of a peaceful “two-state solution.”
A “State of Palestine” will be constitutionally committed to persistent terrorism; “continuous Palestinian struggle” to destroy and replace all of Israel; establishing and enforcing Islam, Sharia law, pan-Arabism, a Judenrein nation and Palestinian Arab supremacy; eliminating, criminalizing and perpetrating lawfare against Jews, Jewish heritage and religion; enshrining a Palestinian Arab “right of return” to overrun Israel; making all of Jerusalem the Palestinian state’s capital; and perpetually ensuring government rewards to Arab terrorists for murdering Jews.
Terrorists will be perpetually rewarded for murdering Jews. Draft constitution Articles 24 and 44 explicitly commit the “State of Palestine” and its national institutions to protecting and providing “comprehensive care” for the needs of Palestinian Arab terrorists (referred to as “martyrs,” “the wounded” and releasees from “occupation prisons”) and their families. And because Article 156 prevents amendments to certain “fundamental rights,” terror stipends will be a permanently entrenched state obligation.
The “Palestine” constitution refers to all of Israel as an “occupation,” “occupied territory” and a “colonial settlement occupation” that the “State Palestine” must “get rid of,” “reject,” “liberate” and “end” (Preamble and Article 12). The constitution never calls Israel by its name and never acknowledges or hints that Israel has any right to exist in any shape or form. Even anti-Israel U.N. resolutions that wrongfully seek to carve up Israel’s lawful land limit their definition of so-called “Palestinian Occupied Territory” (”OPT”) to certain areas.
By contrast, just like Hamas’s governing documents, the maximalist “Palestine” constitution demands Israel’s total eradication.
Further, the “State of Palestine” constitution incorporates the violent, genocidal PLO National Covenant (by declaring that the PLO remains the Palestine people’s “sole legitimate representative” and “continues to perform its national responsibilities according to the [PLO] National Covenant”). The PLO National Covenant explicitly calls for the “elimination of Zionism in Palestine” (Article 15); insists that “armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine” (Article 9); and declares that Palestine is an “indivisible territorial unit” with the full British Mandate boundaries (Article 2). This embeds a commitment to violently eradicate Israel.
The “Palestine” constitution also rewrites history to invent Islamic claims to Israel by lying that Palestine is “where the Messenger of God [Mohammed] traveled.” In fact, Mohammed never traveled in “Palestine.”
The “Palestine” constitution proclaims that all of Jerusalem is the Palestine state’s “eternal capital,” “political, spiritual, cultural, and educational center,” “national symbol” and national headquarters of its legislature and courts. This erases reality. Jerusalem has been the Jewish people’s eternal capital and religious center for more than 3,500 years—long before the advent of Islam—and is the location of Israel’s government, Knesset and courts. Jews pray towards the Jewish holy city of Jerusalem; Muslims pray towards Mecca.
The “Palestine” constitution also commits to protecting Jerusalem’s “Islamic and Christian sanctities” (but lowers Christianity’s status) and declares any measures to change its (Islamic) character or historical identity “null and void,” thereby expunging Jerusalem’s Jewish heritage and sovereignty.
The “State of Palestine” constitution establishes Islam as the state’s “official religion” and “the principles of Islamic Sharia” as “a primary source for legislation.” The president, judges and ministers must swear oaths to uphold Palestine territory’s “unity” and “national and pan-Arab components and heritage”; ensure the constitution and (Sharia-based) laws’ supremacy; and serve and protect the “interests” and “rights and freedoms of the Palestinian Arab people.”
This requires discrimination against non-Arabs and non-Muslims. By contrast, Israel has no official religion, Jewish religious law is not a primary source of Israeli legislation, and all Israeli citizens’ rights are upheld, regardless of their faith.
The “Palestine State” constitution falsely declares, as established fact, blood libels that “the occupation” (Israel) is perpetrating “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” (Preamble and Article 24); asserts that such crimes have no statute of limitations and cannot be pardoned (Article 69); and criminalizes “conspiracy against the unity and integrity of the territory of the State of Palestine.”
These extreme, libelous provisions entrench perpetual lawfare against Jews in international forums and “Palestine” courts, and subject Jews and others to imprisonment for disagreeing with the state.
The “State of Palestine” constitution repeatedly calls for a sweeping so-called Palestinian Arab “right of return” for so-called “Palestinian refugees” to overrun Israel (Preamble, Articles 12 and 40). There is no such unilateral right under international law.
The relevant language in U.N. Resolution 194 (1948) was merely a recommendation, primarily applied to the 1 million Jewish refugees from Arab lands. It does not apply to Palestinian descendants; does not apply because Palestinian Arabs left Israel on their own or at the request of Arab governments; does not apply to Palestinian Arabs who perpetrated terrorist acts (the “persecutor exception” to refugee status); is conditioned on living in peace with ones’ neighbors (still unmet); and places responsibility for resettlement or compensation on the Arab governments who initiated the 1948 war to annihilate Israel.
The constitution’s inclusion of a fraudulent “right of return” again demonstrates that the real goal is Israel’s total destruction.
The “State of Palestine” intended constitution makes it obvious that anyone still advocating for a Palestinian state is supporting creating a theocratic, genocidal terrorist regime.
