Controversial Texas GOP platform would ‘prohibit’ Palestinian state
Republican Sen. John Cornyn is booed at a Texas GOP conference in Houston, June 19, 2022. (KHOU-11/YouTube)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Texas Republican Party approved a platform that supports the “prohibition” of a Palestinian state in lands that Israel now controls.
The platform approved by 5,100 delegates in Houston on Saturday supports the “prohibition of a Palestinian state within the historical borders of Israel, as it would jeopardize Israel’s security and it would force Israel to give up land that God gave to the Jewish people as referenced in Genesis.”
In outright suggesting a “prohibition” on a Palestinian state, the platform goes farther than the 2016 national GOP platform, which withdrew Republican support for a two-state outcome to the Israeli-Palestinian outcome, arguing that any solution should be left to the two parties involved.
That platform did not include a biblical reference but called Israel an “exceptional country that shares our most essential values.”
The Texas platform also supports a “prohibition” on the movement to boycott, divest and sanction Israel.
Party platforms do not necessarily shape government policy even when a party controls all branches, as Republicans do in Texas. Platform conventions are dominated by activists who often stake out positions more extreme than average voters. Republicans who are very popular among Republicans statewide, such Rep. Dan Crenshaw and Sen. John Cornyn, were booed at the convention.
Still, the platform has been garnering headlines because its positions signal how far right the party has drifted.
Among other positions, the platform proposes a referendum on seceding from the United States; rejects Joe Biden’s presidency; calls for the repeal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed Black voters representation; calls homosexuality “an abnormal lifestyle choice”; and supports the repeal of a law mandating direct voting for U.S. senators, preferring a return to their appointment by a state’s legislature. The party banned a gay Republican group, Log Cabin Republicans, from having an official presence at the convention.
“We can’t compromise with Democrats who have a different and incompatible vision for our future,” Matt Rinaldi, the Texas GOP chairman, told the convention. “We need to be a bold and unapologetic conservative party, ready to go on offense and win the fight for our country.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
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.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
