Called the editor: the constitution of the future state is being written in Palestine

In Ramallah, work has begun on the interim constitution of the Palestinian state, Ahmed Majdalani, a member of the PLO executive committee, told Izvestia. Fatah explained to the editors that the future document will fix the borders from 1967, that is, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. France, Britain and Canada have already announced their intention to recognize Palestine in September. Hamas is ready to transfer control of Gaza to a national authority, but only after a cease-fire in the exclave. However, Israel is expanding its military operations, preparing to storm the city of Gaza. Israeli settlements in the West Bank remain a serious problem on the way to proclaiming a new State.

Legal grounds for the State of Palestine

Ramallah has begun drafting an interim constitution for the Palestinian State. According to Izvestia, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), by decree of President Mahmoud Abbas, the first meeting of the committee on the transition of the current Palestinian National Authority to the status of state structures has already been held.

The committee included representatives of leading Palestinian forces, including Ahmed Majdalani, a member of the PLO Executive Committee. He told Izvestia that "preparations are underway for holding general elections and an international peace conference, which is scheduled for September." According to him, the constitution will consolidate the foundations of the political structure of the future Palestine.

"We must create the legal and political conditions for building a state, defining its borders, governance system and constitutional principles," Majdalani said.

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Moreover, Mahmoud Abbas is capable of taking a radical step — unilaterally announcing the transformation of the Palestinian Authority from an administrative entity based on the 1993 Oslo Accords into an independent state, Channel 12 of Israeli television reported. According to their information, this could happen as early as the upcoming session of the UN General Assembly in September.

In light of the recent recognition of Palestine by Spain, Ireland and Norway and the escalation of the conflict with Israel, the drafting of an interim constitution is seen as an important practical step towards consolidating the legal foundations of a future full-fledged State. By the way, three G7 countries — France, Great Britain and Canada — have also declared their readiness to recognize it. In addition, the document will help to fix the geographical scope of the state, and this is especially important against the background of Israel's attempts to extend its sovereignty to the territories it occupies.

The borders of the future Palestinian State

The legal basis of Palestine to this day remains the Basic Law, developed on the basis of the Declaration of Independence of 1988, adopted by the Palestinian politician Yasser Arafat.

The current activity to create a state in the PLO is explained by the failure to comply with the provisions of the agreements reached in Oslo in 1993. At that time, it was assumed that within five years a Palestinian State would be proclaimed within the borders of 1967. However, the process has obviously stalled since then. And the issue became hostage to the protracted negotiations, which did not lead to the creation of conditions for the realization of the Palestinian right to statehood.

— Our position is clear: a single Palestinian state, geographically and politically integrated, including the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip as a single indivisible geographical and political unit. This is confirmed by all relevant international resolutions, and this is what we insist on in this political initiative," Abdel Fattah Al—Dawla, the official representative of the largest Palestinian Fatah faction, explained to Izvestia during the discussion of the draft of the future constitution.

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He stressed that the Palestinian leadership remains committed to UN resolutions, meaning that Palestine should be established on the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital. According to him, the Gaza Strip is an integral part of the future state, and Palestine cannot exist without it, nor can it be considered as a separate entity.

When approving a Palestinian State, it is impossible not to take into account the positions of Hamas, which controls Gaza and is not part of the Palestinian Authority. Simultaneously with the beginning of the work of the constitutional committee, the Palestinian movement told Izvestia that they were ready to transfer control of the exclave to a national body, but after the ceasefire. A Hamas source clarified that it was about "transferring administrative control without any conditions to a Palestinian structure agreed upon at the national level." Such a step could reduce intra-Palestinian contradictions and facilitate the formation of a unified system of governance in the West Bank and Gaza.

Israel's reaction

Meanwhile, efforts for a political settlement are accompanied by an escalation in the Gaza Strip. On August 25, Israeli strikes on the Nasser Hospital in the southern town of Khan Yunis killed at least 20 people, including four journalists. Reuters confirmed that their cameraman was killed, and another agency photographer was injured. The Associated Press and Al Jazeera reported the loss of their freelance staff.

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, the first strike hit the fourth floor of the complex, the only functioning hospital in the southern part of the exclave. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel "deeply regrets" the incident, calling it a "tragic mistake." However, 15 minutes after the first strike, a second one followed when rescuers and journalists arrived at the scene. The cameras of the Al-Ghad TV channel recorded the moment of their deaths.

The attack provoked an acute international reaction. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said he was "horrified by the strike on Nasser hospital," stressing the need for an immediate ceasefire, while French President Emmanuel Macron called the attack "unacceptable." Donald Trump, despite the fact that the United States remains Israel's main ally, also publicly noted that he was "unhappy" with what had happened.

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In response to the initiative of a number of countries, including France and the United Kingdom, to recognize Palestine, Netanyahu's office said that such steps not only undermine the foundations of international diplomacy, but also reward the strategy of Hamas, "using its own population as a human shield and refusing to release hostages." Recall that the Palestinian movement continues to hold 50 people in Gaza, of whom about 20 may be alive. This is one of the key obstacles to resolving the conflict.

Russia supports the restoration of negotiations between the parties to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, while Moscow sees the prevention of a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza as one of the most urgent and priority steps, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on August 20. The outcome of the negotiations, as the Russian side insists, should also be the creation of an independent Palestine, coexisting in peace with the Jewish state.

Israel does not agree with the proclamation of Palestine and the implementation of the two-State solution. In 2024, the Knesset also approved a declaration against the creation of Palestine. With the same message, on August 20, Israel's new plan for the construction of 3,500 apartments in the E1 area east of Jerusalem, near the settlement of Maale Adumim, was demonstrated. The settlement of this territory threatens to separate the northern part of the West Bank from the southern one, disrupting the territorial connectivity of the future state. The far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich hailed it as a "historic step" and a direct response to the willingness of a number of Western countries to recognize an independent Palestine.

According to Abdel Fattah Al-Dawla, Israeli settlements in the West Bank represent a serious obstacle to the peace process. They violate international law and Security Council resolutions, including 2334, which classifies settlements as a war crime.

"Any serious political settlement must be based on the dismantling of these settlements and the elimination of their consequences, which will ensure the creation of a geographically connected and viable Palestinian state," he stressed.

According to the Fatah representative, the cessation of settlement activity is a key step towards the implementation of the two—state solution.