The President’s Speech and the AP

By Published On: May 19, 2011

obama 1967 border.jpg
Don’t let the media tell you otherwise: President Obama referred to ‘1967 lines,’ not borders (Illustrative image)

An AP story filed shortly after President Obama’s Middle East speech was short — only three paragraphs — put it packed in a serious factual error a whopping four times (“Obama says Palestine must be based in 1967 borders.”)

Three times the article incorrectly refers to the 1967 lines as borders, while President Obama himself did not use that inaccurate language.

The article begins: “President Barack Obama is endorsing the Palestinians’ demand for their future state to be based on the borders that existed before the 1967 Middle East war . . . ”

No border existed between Israel and the West Bank before the 1967 war. The lines, established April 3, 1949 by Article III of the Israel-Jordan Armistice Agreement, are not borders but armistice lines, temporary boundaries to be replaced in the future by a negotiated, internationally recognized border.

The second and third paragraph of the AP article also refer incorrectly to the “1967 border.” (Thus each paragraph of the brief story, plus the headline, uses the incorrect terminology.)

As for President Obama, what he actually said was: “The borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states.”

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