Todah Yisrael

Media outlets who misquoted US President Barack Obama on Thursday as
saying he expected a “full a phased withwrawal” by Israel to “1967
borders” are making a subtle but serious mistake, CAMERA said.

Citing an AP story filed shortly after President Obama’s Middle East speech CAMERA
said the article — only three paragraphs — packed the 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 AP article began: “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 . . . “

CAMERA points out 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. -Ed]

As for President Obama, CAMERA notes 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.”

The distinction is a critical one because armistice lines lines are
immaterial in international law in terms of land rights and final status
agreements, whereas borders often can be legally decisive.

While CAMERA used the AP article as an egregarious and illustrative example of the error – numerous media outlets made the same mistake.

Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA)
is a media-monitoring, research and membership organization devoted to
promoting accurate and balanced coverage of Israel and the Middle East.

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