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Al-Ahram Weekly 17 - 23 June 1999 Issue No. 434 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 17 - 23 June 1999 Issue No. 434
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Living Travel Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters State in the making
By Rasha SaadPalestinians are looking forward to having "a constitution that supports political freedoms, accepts the sovereignty of law and a multi-party system in an independent Arab Palestinian republic," said Palestinian Authority Minister of Planning Nabil Shaath. His statement came last week after the first meeting of an Arab League committee to draft a constitution for the coming Palestinian state.
Shaath, who headed the Palestinian delegation at the Arab League committee meeting, said they had "a detailed discussion of the Palestinian perspective of the constitution." The Arab League's legal department experts, together with other Arab experts are taking part in the drafting committee which held its second meeting on Tuesday (15 June).
According to Shaath, the Palestinian input is based on several documents such as the first ever "declaration of independence" made in Algeria in 1988 by President Yasser Arafat following a Palestinian National Council meeting. The second declaration of statehood that Palestinians expect to make soon will be regarded as the inevitable outcome of the 1993 Oslo agreement signed with Israel. This declaration will be the first of its kind to acknowledge that Palestinians are actually in control of areas previously occupied by Israel.
Shaath added that another source of the new constitution would be a document prepared by the present Palestinian Legislative Council on the basic foundations of the Palestinian political system.
The main task of the committee, which is headed by Arab League Secretary-General Esmat Abdel-Meguid and formed at the request of Arafat, will be to reflect this Palestinian perspective in a "modern constitution for an independent Arab state that will be declared in the near future."
According to Palestinian ambassador to the Arab League, Mohamed Sobeih, the involvement of the Arab League in drafting the Palestinian constitution signals political support for the declaration of the Palestinian state. "Israel and the whole world will take note of the Arab world's support and cooperation in the formation of the Palestinian constitution and will feel that it is a serious endeavour towards declaring the Palestinian state," Sobeih told Al-Ahram Weekly. He also added that in this context the writing of a constitution is the culmination of other steps taken towards declaring a Palestinian state. These have included the establishment of a Palestinian airport and airline, the recognition of a Palestinian telephone code, and the setting up of a Palestinian radio and television station.
The Palestinian leadership had earlier announced that a Palestinian state would be declared on 4 May, the date when the five-year-old Palestinian-Israeli interim Oslo agreement expired. Due to international and Arab pressure Arafat agreed to delay the declaration in order not to influence the outcome of last month's Israeli general elections. PA officials said they were looking forward to declaring statehood later this year. A definite date should be decided during the meetings of the Palestinian Central Council later this month.
Sobeih also explained that the reason behind choosing the League's secretary-general as head of the drafting committee is that Abdel-Meguid himself is an expert in international law and has many personal contacts with Arab and international ministries of justice.
The Arab drafting committee has since last month been studying different Arab and non-Arab constitutions that have similar historical backgrounds to that of the Palestinians.
Other Arab independent legal experts are to join the League's committee at a later stage. There is no definite deadline set for finalising the draft but, according to Abdel-Meguid, the process is expected to take several months.
According to Sobeih, the PA has the right to amend any parts of the draft, and the constitution will become final following a public referendum.
However, the whole idea of discussing the Palestinian constitution at this stage was criticised by some Palestinians as part of the propaganda surrounding the debate of the declaration of the Palestinian state.
Ahmed Sidki Al-Dajani, member of the Palestinian National Council, believes that Palestinians and Arabs should rather mobilise their efforts to end this final phase of negotiations and to prevent the Israelis from dictating their demands. "There is no need to waste the time and effort debating futile issues as the declaration or non-declaration of the state and its constitution. The Palestinians should first have a concrete vision of the features of the coming state with its geographic boundaries and population and then think of having a constitution," he said.
Meanwhile, other Palestinians hope that drafting a constitution will settle internal problems that emerged after Arafat's PA became in control of self-rule areas in 1994. During five years of PA rule, there have been growing allegations of authoritarianism and human rights violations within the self-rule areas. There has also been a continuos friction between the PA and the Palestinian Legislative Council which led a key Palestinian political figure such as Haidar Abdel-Shafi, to resign. Abdel-Shafi, who headed the Palestinian delegation at the Madrid peace talks in 1991, complained that the PA has sidelined the Legislative Council and ignored corruption charges made by its members against key PA officials.
The absence of a constitution or a comprehensive legal system also led to strong criticism of the Palestinian judicial system. The PA was accused of ignoring court rulings or the due judicial process. Courts were also reportedly understaffed and thousands of cases were pending.
However, human rights organisations and Palestinian officials attributed these shortcomings to the stumbling peace process. Shaath echoed the same view when he told the Weekly that the declaration of a Palestinian independent state will help in opening a new page. "There is a difference between the two phases. We are speaking about an independent Palestinian state and not a Palestinian Authority that rules a part of the Palestinian land in an interim phase."
