Palestinian Basic Law
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The Palestinian Basic Law

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

Israel may transfer Atarot to the PA

Israel and the Palestinians have reportedly struck a deal to transfer the Qalandia Airport (Atarot) north of Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority. Read: Maan News, «Atarot airport near Jerusalem may be transferred to PA,» 11 April 2008, http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=28718.

The move is designed to strengthen moderates within the PA and will benefit the presidency, which controls civil aviation. The civil aviation and transport authority was transferred to the Presidential Office after the parliamentary elections in 2006. It had previously been transferred from the presidency to the Ministry of Transport by President Mahmoud Abbas in 2005.

Read: Maan News, «The Palestinian civil aviation authority – under the control of the president or the minister of transportation?,» 22 February 2007, http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=19904.

At the time, a number of competencies were transfered or retransferred from the cabinet to the Presidency or the PLO after a decision to enhance the cabinet’s responsibility in 2003.

The PLOs Palestinian News Agency WAFA was retransferred from the Ministry of Information back to the PLO Executive Committee Chairman. The State Information Service was brought back from the Ministry of Information to the presidency. Furthermore, a decision to move the Palestinian TV and Radio Station as well as the Palestinian Satellite Channel from the PLO Executive Committee and the PA Presidency into the portfolio of Ministry of Information was cancelled. A presidential decree transferring the Palestinian National Commission for Education, Culture & Science to the Council of Ministers was revoked.

Read: Palestinian Independent Commission For Citizens’ Rights (PICCR), «The Status of Palestinian Citizens’ Rights During 2006,» 12’th Annual Report, Chapter 1: The Executive Authority, http://www.piccr.org/dmdocuments/AnnualReports/2006/eng/chapter_1.pdf, 39.

All chapters are available from: http://www.piccr.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=163&Itemid=189&lang=en.

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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.

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