Constitutional Declaration of 2025!

The Constitutional Declaration No. 1 of 2025, which stipulates that the Vice President of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization / President of the State of Palestine assumes the position of President of the Palestinian Authority through an amendment to Article 37 of the Basic Law, practically demonstrates that the political system consisting of the tripling of state positions (the organization, the state, and the authority) does not hold without a single person possessing them.

It is a Palestinian custom followed since 1989, when the late President Yasser Arafat, by a decision of the Central Council, combined the presidency of the Organization and the presidency of the state, and in 1993 he combined them with the presidency of the authority by a decision from the Central Council convened in October in the capital Tunis, and then institutionalized it through the elections of 1996. Similarly, President Mahmoud Abbas took on the presidency of the Organization at the end of 2004 and won the elections for the President of the Authority at the beginning of 2005, subsequently assuming the position of President of the State by a decision of the Central Council in 2008, thereby accumulating all three positions.

Discussions have taken place over the past years about the tripling of persons to separate the power held by one person across the three positions, determining the powers and interventions, or trimming them in a manner that allows for political accountability on the one hand, and reduces the growing influence of a single president in the "Palestinian political system" on the other hand, and limits the absolute authority of the holder of multiple positions.

In my view, this constitutional declaration, regardless of the ongoing discussions regarding its constitutionality or lack thereof, has revealed the necessity of abolishing the tripling of positions, not persons, by moving towards unifying these positions in favor of a single position represented by the presidency of the State of Palestine; recognized by more than three-quarters of the member states of the United Nations, and elected by the Palestinian people for specific time frames and limited terms.

This transition requires a political decision through a constitutional declaration to transform the authority into a state and merge the organization into the state; in consistency with the political developments represented by international recognitions, and in harmony with the Declaration of Independence representing the basic social contract for subsequent constitutional documents, and embodying the will of the Palestinian people for independence and exercising the right to self-determination, and realizing their eternal aspiration to thrive and live in their democratic state; based on institutions, the rule of law, and social justice for all its citizens.