Media Fall Silent on Palestinian Draft Constitution

Key Takeaways:

• PA Draft Constitution Omits Israel: The Palestinian Authority’s proposed constitution makes no mention of Israel, defines no borders, and leaves “occupation” undefined—undermining the very premise of a two-state solution.

• Conflict Written Into Law: It entrenches the “right of return,” preserves payments to terrorists’ families, and mandates perpetual prosecution of alleged Israeli “genocide” — locking confrontation into the state’s founding framework.

• No Recognition of Jewish Rights: While protecting Islamic and Christian sites, the draft erases Jews and Judaism and grants the PLO enduring authority, raising serious doubts about pluralism or future negotiations.

 

Over two weeks ago, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas was presented with a copy of a draft constitution that he had commissioned to transition the PA into a full-fledged state.

Since then, outside Israeli media and those specifically focused on the Middle East, there’s been scant coverage of this event in the English-language media.

Isn’t this a little surprising?

When several Western countries agreed to recognize the State of Palestine in the summer of 2025, the media were awash with reports and analyses for days. However, now that there is a potential constitution for this “state,” the mainstream media has largely gone silent.

One reason could be that the media and world leaders are not so happy with this constitution and what it means for a future Palestinian state.

Let’s examine this draft constitution to better understand why the media and other proponents of a two-state solution might not want to publicize it.

Several aspects should make any level-headed observer wince.

I read all 162 articles of Palestine’s new draft constitution — the one France helped write. It doesn’t mention Israel. It doesn’t define borders. It declares “genocide” as constitutional fact. It makes the right of return unamendable. And it erases Judaism entirely from a… pic.twitter.com/sNBpC46gTP

— Elder of Ziyon ?? (@elderofziyon) February 17, 2026

To begin with, there is not a single mention of Israel throughout this entire constitution (an interesting omission considering the establishment of a Palestinian state is usually viewed as part of a two-state solution).

Instead of any mention of the Jewish state, the constitution makes several references to the “occupation.” What is unclear from this constitution is whether the “occupation” refers to the territories that Israel gained control over in 1967 or the entire State of Israel.

This ambiguity is further heightened by the fact that there is no mention of the location of the State of Palestine’s borders. These omissions seem to be keeping the door open for a Palestinian state that ultimately covers the entire region, from the river to the sea. As noted by pro-Israel blogger Elder of Ziyon, this absence of Israel or any defined borders is a step away from a draft constitution that was composed in 2003, which referred to the borders that existed on the eve of the 1967 Six-Day War.

To add to the uncertainty is the continued reference to the Palestinian “right of return.” Is the constitution referring to the return of descendants of displaced Palestinians to the State of Israel or to the future Palestinian state? If the former, this draft constitution is setting itself up for failure, knowing that no Israeli government would ever approve its own national suicide by allowing millions of Palestinians to take up residence within its borders.

Aside from zero mention of Israel, there is also zero mention of Jews or Judaism (the most you can find in this constitution is vague mention of “monotheistic religions” and “heavenly religions”).

Lest you think that there’s no mention of any other religion in the constitution, Article 3 refers to Palestine “protecting its Islamic and Christian sanctities,” and Article 4 makes clear that “Christianity has its status in Palestine, and its followers’ rights are respected.”

There is no regard given to Jewish holy sites that would fall under the purview of a Palestinian state, and it is very clear from this document that the future State of Palestine would not allow any Jewish presence.

As noted by Seth Mandel in Commentary Magazine,

The original Hamas charter, it’s worth noting, was straightforward in its “struggle against the Jews.” The Palestinian Authority’s own proposed constitution doesn’t mention Jews at all. This is the problem when dealing with each of the Palestinian national movement’s leaders in its century-old existence: Jews are either excluded entirely or they are mentioned only as the object of a genocidal raison d’etre. To these Palestinian nationalists, Jews either don’t exist or else they must be made to not exist.

 

Article I of the new Palestinian Constitution says Palestinians aren’t really a nation, but rather are just part of a wider Arab nation.

They just recycled old PLO pan-Arab stuff

Not even Syria (officially the Syrian ARAB Republic) has this stuff in their constitution lol. pic.twitter.com/HngWKQH0eu

— Jacob Ben-David Linker ?????✡️????? (@JacobALinker) February 14, 2026

One of the most troubling aspects of the draft constitution is its seeming entrenchment of “pay-for-slay,” the PA’s policy of subsidizing the families of Palestinian terrorists killed by Israeli security forces or terrorists serving sentences in Israeli prisons. In effect, “pay-for-slay” is a financial incentive to commit terrorism.

Despite Palestinian claims that it has done away with this incentive program, Article 44 of this draft constitution reads,

The law organizes the provision of comprehensive care for the families of martyrs, the wounded, and prisoners, and those released, in preservation of their national dignity and their humanitarian and living needs.

In effect, this article is entrenching “pay-for-slay” as a constitutional right, just couched in fancy legal terminology.

This draft constitution also libelously claims that there is ongoing genocide in Gaza and the West Bank and puts forward a constitutional duty to pursue perpetrators of this “genocide” for all time (since it further states that there is no statute of limitations).

As noted by Elder of Ziyon, this not only seems to preclude any negotiations with Israel (what happened to that much-valued “two-state solution”?) but also seems to place any Israeli in danger of being arrested if they ever want to travel in this Palestinian state to visit a Jewish religious site or continue to Jordan. As most Israeli Jews serve in the IDF, this would leave them open to being arrested and imprisoned by Palestinian authorities on trumped-up charges. As a member of the International Criminal Court since 2015, this new State of Palestine could even extend its hunt for Israeli soldiers to the international arena, creating dangers for ex-IDF members overseas.

Remember when Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas claimed that they were ending “pay for slay” – support for incarcerated and deceased Palestinian terrorists and their families?

The new PA draft constitution enshrines the payments.

Article 24: “The State of…

— Lahav Harkov (@LahavHarkov) February 17, 2026

This draft constitution also grants legitimacy to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the “sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people in all their places of residence” until the right of return and other “inalienable rights” are realized.

As Israel would never agree to the “right of return,” this constitution appears to leave the PLO in charge in perpetuity. Not only does it leave the PLO in charge, but it can also be argued that Article 154 (which addresses the state’s security forces) makes Hamas and Islamic Jihad illegal militias but legitimizes PLO terror factions such as Fatah’s terrorist branch al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades and PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) activities in this new state.

New from me: The draft constitution of the ‘State of Palestine’ refutes the very concept of a two-state solution. Once again, the world can’t make the Palestinian leadership want a state. Their answer continues to be no https://t.co/nS249r0dd0

— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) February 13, 2026

As Elder of Ziyon notes, several of the rights laid out in this draft constitution (pay-for-slay, the pursuit of drivers of “genocide,” and the right of return) are unamendable, meaning that no future Palestinian government or court can ever alter these most controversial parts of the constitution. In effect, this constitution is not opening the door to a two-state solution but rather closing off any future negotiations between the State of Israel and the State of Palestine.

After repeatedly insisting that the Israeli government was the party responsible for the lack of a two-state solution, maybe this is why the media has failed to adequately cover this new Palestinian draft constitution. They’ve put all their analytical eggs in one basket and that basket has just proven to be unreliable and faulty. How embarrassing…

Note: This analysis of the constitution’s text is based on an unofficial translation by Princeton Professor Zaid Al-Ali

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