Palestinian Basic Law
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The Palestinian Basic Law

A collection of various propsals and amendments to the Basic Law of Palestine.

News & updates

Fayyad government resigns

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has tendered his government's resignation. On Saturday, the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank announced plans to hold elections by September. Read: Maan Mews, Fayyad tenders ...   More...

Abbas calls for new elections

The Palestinian leadership has announced plans to hold presidential and parliamentary elections by September. Read: New York Times, Palestinian Leaders Suddenly Call for Elections, 12 February 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/world/middleeast/13mideast.html?_r=1&ref=middleeast   More...

Al-Ahmad: Abbas considers holding elections

According to senior Fatah official Azzam Al-Ahmad, President Mahmoud Abbas is looking into holding presidential and legislative elections despite the national division. Read: Al-Ahmad: Abbas considering holding elections, Maan News, 30 January ...   More...

Maan: Hamas calls for restructuring of thePO

 Hamas leaders call on figures in the Palestine Liberation Organization to resign, saying leaked information on talks with Israel has revealed them as traitors to the Palestinians.  Read: Maan News, "Hamas ...   More...

PLC official denied travel permission

According to a Hamas statement,  Nasser Abdul Jawad was detained at the border for a number of hours and told he could not pass from the West Bank into Jordan. Read: ...   More...

Maan: PLC member accuses PA of stalling elections

Palestinian Legislative Council member Hasan Khreisheh on Friday accused the Palestinian Authority of trying to further delay elections. Read: Maan News, "PLC member accuses PA of stalling elections," 22 January 2011.   More...

Maan: Hamas fears new “campaign” against members

Israel has detained the former Palestinian finance minister  in the West Bank district of Salfit, the second Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council to be detained in two weeks. Read: ...   More...

Brown: Fayyadism not the solution

 "Technocratic management can probably keep Palestinian institutions afloat and even improve their functioning in some limited ways. But it does not even pretend to offer a solution for the deeper ...   More...

Brown: Fayyadism is not state building

"The international community’s understandable admiration for Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and his efforts to rebuild the West Bank obscures a dangerous regression in democracy and human rights," states Nathan ...   More...

– Time to throw Abbas

Efraim Halevy, former chief of the Israeli intelligence services, has said to Israel's Army Radio that the Palestinian Authority is "useless and nothing but students of Israel and the US.  Halevy further said tit is ...   More...

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Facts about the Basic Law

The Palestinian Basic Law is to function as a temporary constitution for the Palestinian Authority until the establishment of an independent state and a permanent constitution for Palestine can be achieved.

The Basic Law was passed by the Palestinian Legislative Council in 1997 and ratified by President Yasser Arafat in 2002. It has subsequently been amended twice; in 2003 the political system was changed to introduce a prime minister. In 2005 it was amended to conform to the new Election Law. The 2003 reform was comprehensive and affected the whole nature of the Palestinian political system, whereas the 2005 amendment was only minor and affected only a few paragraphs.

A parallel effort has been made to draft a permanent Palestinian constitution for an independent state, but this was shelved in favor of amending the existing Basic Law.


About this site

This website presents a collection of various drafts and amendments related to the Basic Law and other constitutional texts that have been compiled from various other sources.

You can also expect to find links to news items and reports that are of relevance to Palestinian constitutional law, the electoral framework, political reform and the PA branches of government.

The website was created by the Norwegian journalists Erik Bolstad and Tonje M. Viken in February 2008. The site is a private initiative and has no affiliation to any organizations or authorities.

All external links are purely for information purposes and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors of this site.

Information and contact details.