Summary
Adalah’s March 2007 draft constitution for Israel, which Makdisi’s Coda presents as the fullest of the Palestinian citizens’ 2006-2007 proposals — and, implicitly, as a draft constitution for one democratic, bilingual, multicultural state in all historic Palestine (Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation, PDF p.348-350).
Details
- It is founded on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: all human beings are equal, and no nation or people possesses rights that can cancel out those of another (PDF p.349).
- It affirms that “the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel have lived in their homeland for innumerable generations”, are “an inseparable part of the Palestinian people”, and have “not relinquished their national identity” but had their political status “changed against their will” when they became “a minority in their homeland” in 1948 (PDF p.349).
- Its point of departure for peace is that Israel recognize “its responsibility for the injustices of the Nakba and the Occupation; recognize the right of return of the Palestinian refugees based on UN [General Assembly] Resolution 194; recognize the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination; and withdraw from all of the territories occupied in 1967” (PDF p.349).
- Its principal aim is a state “that does not control or occupy another people and that is based on full equality between all of its residents and between all of the different groups within it”, “a democratic, bilingual and multicultural state” (PDF p.349).
- Alongside it in the 2006-2007 series: the Haifa Covenant, drafted by the Arab Center for Applied Social Research, and The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel, published by the Committee of Arab Mayors in Israel; the calls were denounced across the Israeli Zionist spectrum as tantamount to demanding the end of the Jewish state (PDF p.348).
- Although explicitly a constitution for Israel within its pre-1967 borders, applying its principles would end Israel’s claim to be a Jewish state, leaving no need for two separate states (PDF p.350).
Related pages
Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation, Adalah, One-state solution, Right of Return, UN General Assembly Resolution 194