Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

Republicans Prepare to Drop Mention of ‘Palestine’ From Platform

Taking yet another shift to the right on the Israeli – Palestinian conflict, the Republican Party is poised to drop reference to Palestinians from its platform and to reinforced the call for keeping Jerusalem “undivided” under Israeli rule.

According to a CNN report based on a leaked first draft of the platform presented to party’s platform committee, the 2016 platform will not include any direct mention of Palestine or the Palestinians when discussing ways of bringing peace to the Middle East.

Support for a two-state solution has been a mainstay of all Republican administrations and although little progress has been made to realize this solution, it has always been the cornerstone of both Republican and Democratic parties’ approach to the conflict.

A group of Jewish Republican activists, organized in a Super PAC named Iron Dome Coalition, has been advocating for a departure from a two-state solution in the GOP platform. The activists lobbied the platform committee against what they described as “any attempts to force or pressure Israel to recognize or support the creation of an Arab state in any part of the Land of Israel including Judea and Samaria.”

The last Republican platform, adopted in 2012, expressed support for “Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state with secure, defensible borders,” and envisions “two democratic states — Israel with Jerusalem as its capital and Palestine — living in peace and security.”

The term “Palestine” was first introduced into American policy discussion by President George W. Bush, when discussing the need to establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

The pro-Israel lobby AIPAC has been a strong supporter of a two-state solution and has fought back in the past attempts to drop this mention from the Republican Party’s platform.

According to CNN, the new platform will also support Jerusalem as the “undivided” capital of Israel. The term “undivided,” which was omitted from the party platform in 2012, would suggest that even under a future peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians, the Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem would remain under Israeli control.

The pro-Israel evangelical group Christians United for Israel have sent last week letters to Republican delegates urging them to make sure the platform recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital.

The GOP platform committee kicked off its discussions Monday morning in Cleveland and will finalized the language by Tuesday before bringing it to a vote at the party’s convention on July 18.

The party’s apparent shift to the right on policy regarding the Israeli – Palestinian conflict coincides with the Democratic Party’s decision on Saturday to block attempts to move its policy on the issue further to the left and to add language seen as more sympathetic to the Palestinian side.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.