Tuesday, February 17, 2026
Elder of Ziyon
Several readers and journalists pointed out that the constitution also appears to enshrine the "pay for slay" system — payments to terrorists and their families. They're right. But they're missing the deeper story.
Article 44 of the draft constitution states: "The law organizes the provision of comprehensive care for the families of martyrs, the wounded, and prisoners, and those released, in preservation of their national dignity and their humanitarian and living needs."
That's pay for slay written into constitutional law. "Martyrs" is the Palestinian term for those who died carrying out attacks. "Prisoners" includes those convicted of murdering Israeli civilians. The constitution doesn't just permit these payments — it mandates "comprehensive care" as a matter of constitutional obligation.
But here's what most of the reporting has missed.
On June 9, 2025, Mahmoud Abbas sent a letter to Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman making a series of commitments designed to secure European recognition of Palestinian statehood. Among them, according to France's own official statement: "He confirmed the end of allowances for the families of prisoners convicted of terrorism offences."
France cited this promise — on its own government website — as one of the specific commitments justifying recognition. Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot repeated it at the UN conference on July 28. In November, when Abbas visited Paris, Macron announced that France would join an audit authority to verify that the pay-for-slay system was being dismantled. Abbas even fired his finance minister, Omar Bitar, for authorizing payments through the old mechanism — a gesture designed to show Macron he was serious.
Then Abbas drafted a constitution that makes payments to prisoners and martyrs' families a fundamental constitutional right.
Normally, constitutions can be amended. But significant parts of this one cannot.
Article 44 sits within Chapter II of the constitution — "Public Rights and Freedoms." Article 156 states: "It is not permissible to conduct any constitutional amendment to any of the following: 1. The provisions related to the guarantees of fundamental rights and freedoms provided for in this Constitution."
Pay for slay is not just constitutional law. It is unamendable constitutional law. No future Palestinian government, no matter how reform-minded, no matter what it promises Western donors, can constitutionally eliminate these payments. A Palestinian president who tried to end the system as part of a peace deal could be challenged in the Constitutional Court — and the Court would be legally obligated to rule against him.
Abbas promised Macron he would end pay for slay. Then he drafted a constitution that makes it permanent and irrevocable. France helped him write it.
The "right of return" is similarly unamendable. Article 40 says ""No Palestinian may be deported from the territory of the homeland, prevented from entering it or returning to it." The constitution does not define "homeland" but Palestinian rhetoric, the PLO logo, schoolbook maps and logic itself shows that Palestinians regard all of Israel as its "homeland" - that is exactly what "right of return" means. Article 12, which is not the unamendable part, can be shown to help with the definition: "ensuring the right of return for refugees according to international legitimacy resolutions" uses the same word, "return," and clearly refers to all of British Mandate Palestine.
Western diplomats have spent decades treating Palestinian maximalist positions as opening bids — things that would naturally be compromised in negotiations. This constitution shows that their maximalist positions are also their minimalist positions - the 2026 constitution prohibits amending the "right of return," paying terrorists, and even recognizing Israel itself because it is a genocidal state according to the document.
The pattern is always the same. A Palestinian leader tells a Western audience what it wants to hear: we want peace, we want democracy, we'll reform, we'll demilitarize. The Western leader announces a breakthrough. Recognition follows, or funding, or diplomatic support. Then the Palestinian leader goes home and does exactly what he was always going to do.
Abbas told Macron he would:
- Condemn October 7 ✓ (in the letter — but the constitution celebrates "the continuous Palestinian struggle that has never ceased")
- End pay for slay ✗ (the constitution makes it an unamendable right)
- Reform textbooks to remove hate speech ✗ (the constitution embeds "genocide" as foundational fact)
- Demilitarize ✗ (the constitution never mentions demilitarization and places the PLO, which has never renounced armed resistance, permanently above the state)
- Hold elections ✓ (within a constitutional framework that makes peace illegal)
- Accept the two-state solution ✗ (the constitution claims all the land and defines no borders)
Macron got two checkmarks out of six. And even those two are hollow — condemning October 7 in a private letter while drafting a constitution that celebrates perpetual struggle, and promising elections within a constitution that enshrines that the real entity that controls all decisions is the PLO, not the "State of Palestine," and the PLO self-appoints its leaders regardless of what the people want.
This isn't a failure of Palestinian reform. It's a success of Palestinian strategy. Abbas extracted recognition, funding, and diplomatic support from the most powerful nations in Europe, and in exchange he delivered a constitution that enshrines everything those nations claimed they were working to change.
For thirty years, the international community has operated on the assumption that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a territorial dispute that can be resolved through negotiation, compromise, and mutual recognition. The 2026 constitution is a definitive statement that the Palestinian leadership does not share this assumption and never has.
Every nation that recognized Palestine in September 2025 did so in the name of the two-state solution. The state they recognized has now produced a constitution that makes the two-state solution unconstitutional. They need to decide which commitment they take seriously — because they cannot honor both.
The 60-day public comment period on the constitution closes around April 11. Every government that recognized Palestine should be demanding answers. Starting with France, which didn't just recognize the state but helped draft the document that makes peace impossible and pay for slay permanent.
Part 1 of this analysis, covering the full constitutional framework, is here. The full text of the Draft Constitution of the State of Palestine (February 2026), in unofficial English translation, is available here.
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