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There is no clear and direct legal indication regarding a referendum in the Palestinian Autonomous Territories, but article 27 of the Basic Law refers indirectly to the citizens’ political participation rights. This is the conclusion of Dr. Ali Khasans’ lecture at the Institute of Law at Birzeit University.

Dr. Ali Khasan is the Secretary of the Palestinian Constitution Drafting Committee. The draft has been conceived with the support of Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation Ramallah. In his lecture, Dr. Ali Khasan described the political backgrounds of the so called “prisoner’s paper”, which has been elaborated due to the tensions between Hamas and Fatah by politicians of different factions, who are detainees in Israeli prisons at present. Dr. Ali Khasan explained the situations in which is possible to call for a referendum and clarified the process. He also illustrated the Hamas’ point of view, who does not agree with the planned referendum and refers to the fact, that its political programme has been chosen only a few months ago by the Palestinian citizens in the legislative elections.

The lecture on June 6 took place within the framework of the series “Legal Encounters” that is conducted in cooperation with KAF Ramallah. Numerous legal experts, journalists, politicians, representatives of non-governmental organizations and students discussed with Dr. Ali Khasan the different aspects and legal implications of the referendum.