Controversial Texas GOP platform ‘prohibits’ Palestinian state and BDS

While state platforms carry no weight in foreign policy, they can serve as a barometer of rank and file attitudes.

By David Hellerman, World Israel News

The Texas Republican Party convention approved on Saturday a controversial platform, which, among other things, supports the “prohibition” of creating a Palestinian state.

With the approval of 5,100 delegates, the platform throws its support behind 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.”

That wording goes farther than the national party’s platform, which in 2016 said a final peace agreement should be resolved by Israelis and Palestinians.

The Texas platform also described Israel as an “exceptional country that shares our most essential values.”

The platform’s language also “prohibits” the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS) against Israel.

State platforms expressing views on foreign policy carry no practical significance, but can serve as a barometer of rank and file attitudes.

The 40-page platform raised plenty of other contentious issues.

Its most explosive statement was the renunciation of President Joe Biden’s election.

“We reject the certified results of the 2020 Presidential election, and we hold that acting President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was not legitimately elected by the people of the United States,” the platform says.

It also calls for a referendum on the Lone Star State to secede from the U.S., seeks to have its U.S. senators be chosen by the state legislature instead of directly by voters, and calls on the U.S. to drop out of the United Nations.