BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli media on Wednesday misinterpreted a Facebook status by Mahmoud Abbas to suggest the president had abandoned the two-state solution.
Discussing the bid to upgrade Palestine to a non-member state at the UN, Abbas posted an Arabic-language status update explaining that recognition of statehood would prove that Palestinian territory is under occupation rather than "disputed" land.
The president referred to Palestinian land occupied before 1967 using terminology commonly used to refer to the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
His use of the preposition "before" alarmed Israeli media, including the third most-read newspaper Maariv and Israel radio which reported that Abbas was seeking a state in all of historic Palestine.
Maariv accused Abbas of incitement and claimed Abbas was claiming Israel as "our occupied homeland," even though in both bids to upgrade Palestine's status at the UN -- in Sept. 2011 and Sept. 2012 -- the president has requested recognition of a Palestinian state on 1967 borders.
Usually, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza would be referred to collectively as "1948 Palestine," and so the president's use of "pre-1967" clearly referred to land occupied in 1967.
The president referred to "all the territory" occupied in 1967 because Israel has consistently refused to return all the land it occupied in 1967 during years of negotiations in Oslo and even earlier.
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