Newsweek Mangles the Green Line

UPDATE

Following HonestReporting’s correspondence with Newsweek, the following correction has been added to the article:

* * *

A story in Newsweek includes the following paragraph:

The 1949 so-called Green Line certainly did not set out to “demarcate the Palestinian state.” The Green Line refers to demarcation lines that separated Israeli and Arab forces at the conclusion of the 1948 War of Independence. These armistice lines were never intended to set permanent borders. In addition, the West Bank that Newsweek refers to was occupied by Jordan until 1967.

The text of the 1949 Armistice Agreement clearly states in Article V:

The Armistice Demarcation Line is not to be construed in any sense as a political or territorial boundary, and is delineated without prejudice to rights, claims and positions of either Party to the Armistice as regards ultimate settlement of the Palestine question.

Newsweek’s wholly inaccurate description of the Green Line chimes with those who falsely claim that Israel’s creation came at the expense of a pre-existing Palestinian state. There has never been a sovereign Palestinian state and Newsweek’s reference is a distortion of history.

HonestReporting has sent a request to Newsweek for a correction. Watch this space.

 
Image: CC BY-NC Darwin Bell via flickr

 
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