The reality of the ‘new’ Palestinian constitution
Reading through all the clauses of the newly drafted Palestinian constitution, I wonder how the West can allow a constitution that essentially eliminates the State of Israel as a sovereign nation and codifies the Palestinian Authority and its proxies to have the authority to continue their violent path of liberation. This constitution declares that the religion connected to Jerusalem is Islam. Nothing in the constitution mentions the Jewish connection to Jerusalem. The name, Israel, is never written. Finally, the constitution establishes a state with Sharia law instead of civil law.
It seems clear that the Oslo Accords are dead and the illusion of a 2-state solution has disappeared. This constitution does not promote cooperating with their neighbor, Israel, just liberating themselves from their neighbor. How do we have peaceful co-existence, when our neighbor ignores the legal existence of the State of Israel?
While the document frequently mentions liberation, we must explore from whom they are liberating themselves. It doesn’t state the name of Israel, but, of course, it means Israel. What is the intent of the phrase, “adopting a path of democratic struggle”? If they are an established state, against whom are they struggling? It declares they are fighting “ethnic cleansing” and a “genocide” and are “dream(ing) of return”. Ethnic cleansing and genocide indicate a reduction in population. Their population in both the West Bank and Gaza has increased. Where are they returning? Their villages in the West Bank? or Haifa, Jaffa, Jerusalem? If it is the latter, this constitution is clearly calling for the destruction of Israel.
The draft asserts that the “constitution is faithful to the Palestinian identity, which is derived from a long human history and the tolerance of religions”. Really? “Tolerance of religions”? Which religions? There is no tolerance of Judaism. They are unable to even mention the word “Jew” or “Israel” in their constitution.
Christianity’s connection to holy sites is mentioned, yet there has been a significant culling of the Christians in the West Bank. Bethlehem no longer has the Christian population it had prior to the Oslo Accords. According to a report by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, and corroborated by a report in The American Thinker, March 2025, in 1950, Bethlehem’s Christian population was 86% of the city and surrounding villages. Today, the Christian population is only 10% of the same area. Christians complain about the PA not protecting them from Muslim violence, discrimination in the workplace, lack of tourists due to war causing in fear and economic hardship, and resulting in many Christian Arabs seeking to emigrate.
In Article 3 entitled– “Jerusalem, religious nature, historical identity” clause 2 eliminates the Jewish connection to Jerusalem by elaborating:
The state is committed to preserving its religious character and protecting its Islamic and Christian sanctities, as well as its legal, political, and historical status.
This clause clearly demonstrates the antithesis of living in peace and allowing for tolerance of all religions. This clause omits any connection of the Jewish People to Jerusalem. The goal of the document is to establish Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine; however, Jerusalem is already the capital of Israel. It cannot be the capital of two countries. Jerusalem has been united since 1967 and will not be divided again. The Palestinians need to recognize that and create a constitution that establishes a capital in Ramallah, where they already hold their seat of government.
As you read further into the document, in Article 24, the Palestinian policy of “pay to slay” is entrenched into law. It was supposed to be eliminated as required by the United States, yet this document codifies it:
The State of Palestine and the relevant national institutions work to provide protection and care for the families of martyrs and the wounded and prisoners and those released from the occupation prisons and the victims of genocide and to pursue the perpetrators of these crimes before the judiciary.
It talks about “human rights” but at the same time is installing Sharia law. If Sharia law exists, homosexuality is forbidden. The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies published a report by Dr. Edy Cohen, in 2019, that provided evidence that LGBTQ individuals were persecuted and criminalized in the Palestinian territories. Their gatherings continue to be disrupted by police, and they are constantly in danger of being revealed and killed.
Women do not have equal rights because women are property of the men in their families. Honor killings continue throughout the Islamic world, and the Palestinian territories are no exception. In a Times of Israel article from 2017, Dov Lieber wrote,
“Palestinian women’s rights advocates have argued that (article 99 of the Jordanian penal code which is adopted in the PA)… incentivizes murder by minimizing punishment and also incentivizes murderers of women to claim they killed for their family’s honor.”
How does that promote equal rights? Equal rights is a Western phenomenon.
We must not ignore this document. Rather we must advocate on behalf of Israel against any constitution that does not include recognition of Israel as a sovereign nation next to a future Palestinian state. If the West allows this document to stand, it proves they are not interested in promoting peace between Israel and the Arabs, rather they are enabling the Palestinians to continue to live in a world that views their fight for liberation as their only existence.
