“Palestine Constitution” Reiterates What They Really Believe, and It Isn’t Living Side-by-Side There With Us
#1311 March 1,, 2026
This week’s “Palestine’s Draft Constitution” reveals zero chance of “living side-by-side in peace and security,” but that’s not the fundamental unthinkability of “two-state solution.”
The breaking news this weekend is of course U.S. and Israel’s attacks on Iran in the wake of its continued pursuit of nuclear bombs and means to deliver them. We hope and pray for U.S. and Israel’s success in further securing the world from Iran’s nuclear threat. (Imagine how quick the UN would have condemned had it been Israel alone.)
But there was another development this week directly bearing on the welfare of Jews. The Palestinian Authority released its draft Palestine constitution. For the majority of U.S. Jews who, along with most of the world, support “two states living side by side in western Palestine in peace and security,” I hope this comes as a wake-up shock.
The ZOA did an analysis (view under News on zoa.org, ZOA Condemns New Draft ‘State of Palestine’ Constitution Promoting Paying Arabs To Murder Jews and War To Eliminate Israel) showing how far (light-years) this constitution is from Palestinian Arabs seeking to live in peace and security alongside Israel with no geographical dividers between them in that narrow land between the Jordan and Sea.
Below are some lowlights excerpted from ZOA’s analysis. To get the full scope of ZOA’s condemnation, check its website article.
*** No Reference to “Living Side by Side”
ZOA: “The draft never endorses ‘peacefully living side by side with Israel’ on part of Israel’s lawful land (the so-called ‘two state solution’). Rather, the new, absolutist ‘Palestine’ constitution refers to all of Israel as an ‘occupation’ and seeks Israel’s eradication.” [emphasis ZOA’s]
*** “Pay-for-Slay”
ZOA: “Article 24 of the draft constitution commits the ‘State of Palestine’ and its national institutions to protecting and caring for convicted terrorists and their families….”
*** “Israel” Not Mentioned, Just “Occupation”
ZOA: “The ‘State of Palestine’ constitution deems all of Israel to be an ‘occupation’ to be destroyed. The constitution’s preamble repeatedly refers to ‘occupation’ without even limiting the term ‘occupation’ to the areas recovered by Israel in 1967. Israel is never mentioned by name.”
*** No Mention of Israel’s Right To Exist
ZOA: “… the anti-peace extreme ‘Palestine’ constitution contains no notion of co-existing with Israel. The ‘Palestine’ constitution contains no language acknowledging or implying that Israel has a continuing right to exist in any shape or form.”
*** All of Jerusalem Palestine State’s “Eternal Capital”
ZOA: “The ‘Palestine’ constitution claims that all of Jerusalem is the Palestine state’s ‘eternal capital,’ ‘its political, spiritual, cultural, and educational center,’ ‘its national symbol’…”
*** Commits to Protecting Jerusalem’s “Islamic and Christian Sanctities”
ZOA: “… the ‘Palestine’ constitution declares that the Palestine state is committed to protecting Jerusalem’s ‘Islamic and Christian sanctities’ (but not Jerusalem’s Jewish sanctities) …” [emphasis ZOA’s]
*** ZOA Assesses “Far Worse” that Harmful “Two-State” Model
ZOA: “The ‘Palestine’ constitution is thus far worse than the harmful ‘two-state’ model. Even dangerous ‘two-state solution’ concepts that seek to carve off the Jewish people’s rights and heritage call for a Palestinian state’s capital to be limited to the non-existent entity of ‘East Jerusalem’ (meaning eastern Jerusalem, including the Jewish Old City, where the Jewish people’s holiest sites are located) – rather than the entire city of Jerusalem that the ‘State of Palestine’ constitution claims for its capital.”
*** Islam Official Religion, Sharia “Primary Source for Legislation”
ZOA: “The ‘State of Palestine’ constitution establishes Islam as ‘the official religion in the State of Palestine’ and embeds ‘the principles of Islamic Sharia’ as ‘a primary source for legislation.’ (Article 4.) By contrast, Israel has no official religion, and does not make Jewish religious law a primary source of legislation.” [emphasis ZOA’s]
*** Supremacy of Islamic Law
ZOA: “… the ‘Palestine state’ judiciary is charged with ‘ensuring the supremacy of the Constitution’ (Article 120) – meaning ensuring the supremacy of Islamic Sharia law established in the constitution.”
*** “The Occupation” is Perpetrating “Genocide” and “Ethnic Cleansing”
ZOA: “The ‘Palestine State’ constitution falsely declares that ‘the occupation’ (Israel) is perpetrating ‘genocide’ and ‘ethnic cleansing’ (Preamble and Article 24).”
*** “Right of Return” for “Palestinian Refugees”
ZOA: “The ‘State of Palestine’ constitution repeatedly calls for a sweeping so-called Palestinian Arab ‘right of return’ for ‘Palestinian refugees.’ (Preamble, Articles 12 and 40.)”
ZOA’s Conclusion:
“In sum, the new draft ‘State of Palestine’ constitution should set off alarm bells. It once again demonstrates that the PA should have no governance role in Gaza, and that any Palestinian state would be a terrorist state committed to destroying Israel and its indigenous Jewish people.”
Bottom Line
Certainly I agree with the ZOA that “any Palestinian state would be a terrorist state committed to destroying Israel and its indigenous Jewish people.”
But that’s not the fundamental reason why, as an Israeli news source recently put it, we Jews must regard “a Palestinian state” inside the land of Israel, Palestine west of the Jordan, as “Unthinkable.” The land of Israel, with historic Jerusalem and biblical hill country heartland Judea-Samaria as its core heart & soul, is our people’s homeland, period:
*** historically (three-millennia continuous presence as its indigenous people)
*** legally (San Remo and Palestine Mandate)
*** equitably (Palestinian Arab-majority judenrein Jordan is 75% of Mandated Palestine)
*** indispensably (Ingathering Exiles following two-millennia Diaspora persecution in Christian and Muslim lands)
The “two-state solution” would render our Jewish national home into an indefensible Jewishly meaningless Jewish national ghetto.
