CAIRO, December 16 (IslamOnline) - Efforts to write down a Palestinian Constitution came under fire Monday, December 16, from a leading resistance group, dubbing the move as “pre-mature”, while the head of the Constitution Committee defended the project as a counter measure to the U.S. roadmap for the Middle East.

Speaking to IslamOnline, Usama Hamid, member of the Political Bureau of Hamas resistance group, said that the problem is adopting a constitution for the Palestinian state constitutes a major demand of the U.S. roadmap.

“This puts the Palestinians in a deep problem, as they will have to define the borders and identity of the Palestinian state (the first article of any constitution), as well as the political identity for all Palestinians (under occupation inside, or living as refugees abroad).

“How could the new constitution define the new state? Will it be the current (supposedly) self-ruled areas, or the West Bank and Gaza Strip, or all the Palestinian lands?

“If they go for the first option, what about the hopes of all Palestinians to establish their own independent state with east Jerusalem as its capital?” Hamid wondered.

He went on to add that adopting a constitution comes naturally after obtaining independence, not before as the case is now with Palestine.

Hamid also predicted that the Palestinian Authority (PA), by forging ahead with that move now, will be putting itself in an impossible situation.

“They will have to go either way; to meet all the national Palestinian interests, thus provoking the wrath of the Americans, or to adopt the U.S. agenda for the Middle East, thus discrediting themselves before the Palestinian people,” he added.

The Hamas member asserted that the PA is still committing the same mistakes of the past, by not inviting Hamas to join the Constitution Committee, which met in the Arab League HQ in Cairo late Monday.

“The PA is still adopting the individual style of political work, the same mistake committed in Oslo. Israel has now stepped over all the previous agreements with the PA. However, the same wrong political approach is applied,” he concluded.

On the other hand, the PA’s Minister for International Cooperation, Nabil Shaath, defended the move as a counter measure to the U.S. roadmap, describing the attempt to put down a constitution for the future state of Palestine as “shielding behind the national and Arab identities.”

“The draft constitution is basically a build up on the independence charter declaration in 1999, the Basic Law issued and adopted by the Legislative Assembly (Palestinian Parliament) in 1996.

“The Constitution Committee was formed in 1999 when the PA was about to declare the independent state of Palestine, in conformity with the Oslo Accords. I was appointed head of the committee that comprised a group of legal experts representing all political currents, and tasked with drafting a constitution for Palestine,” Shaath said.

Responding to a query about the properness of adopting a constitution for a practically under occupation state, Shaath explained that the constitution is “for all Palestinians, not for the PA”, adding that, once finished and approved by the Legislative Assembly, it will put to a general referendum for all Palestinians (inside and abroad) to give their final say.

The Palestinian Committee met Saturday, December 14, in Gaza and Ramallah, through a video-conference system after Israeli occupation forces barred its members from moving freely.

The participants agreed on over 75% of the draft constitution of 1999.