Palestine Palestinian Basic Law (2003, as amended)
القانون الأساسي الفلسطيني
Summary
The interim constitution of the Palestinian Authority. The 2003 amendment created the office of prime minister, which Yasser Arafat had resisted — international pressure had wanted a check on the presidency, and Mahmoud Abbas became the first PM. The Basic Law has never been replaced by the permanent constitution it envisions, because the political process that would draft and ratify one has been frozen since 2007.
Impact
The document the West Bank Palestinian Authority operates under. Hamas governance in Gaza did not formally repudiate it but did not operate under it either. The 2007 institutional split froze the law's evolution.
Sources
https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/bills/ps-basic-law-2003 How to cite
This is a citation for the legislation itself — credited to Palestinian Legislative Council and dated to its 2002 introduction. Tayyar is the retrieval surface, not the author. A separate "Retrieved via" line records that you accessed it through this dataset.
In-text: (Palestinian Legislative Council, 2002) (Palestinian Legislative Council, 2002)
APA 7Institutional author
Palestinian Legislative Council. (2002). Palestinian Basic Law (2003, as amended) [Legislation]. https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/bills/ps-basic-law-2003. Retrieved June 21, 2026, from https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/bills/ps-basic-law-2003.
Chicago author-dateCommon in political-science journals
Palestinian Legislative Council. 2002. “Palestinian Basic Law (2003, as amended).” Legislation. https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/bills/ps-basic-law-2003. Accessed June 21, 2026.
BibTeXLaTeX / Zotero / reference managers
@misc{tayyar-bill-ps-basic-law-2003,
title = {{Palestinian Basic Law (2003, as amended)}},
author = {{Palestinian Legislative Council}},
year = {2002},
date = {2002-05-29},
type = {Legislation},
url = {https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/bills/ps-basic-law-2003},
urldate = {2026-06-21},
note = {Retrieved via Tayyar on June 21, 2026}
}