Abbas announces plans for 'Palestine' passports
- 8 years ago
Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Monday announced plans to begin issuing passports for the "State of Palestine" instead of the Palestinian Authority, The Associated Press reports.
This is not the first time that Abbas has announced plans to issue "State of Palestine" passports.
In 2012, after the United Nations overwhelmingly voted in favor of upgrading the PA's status at the organization to that of a "non-member observer state", Abbas issued guidelines ordering the PA government to re-issue passports, identity cards, registration documents, vehicle licenses, driver's licenses, stamps and postmarks with the name "State of Palestine" instead of Palestinian Authority.
But he later backed off from the plan , with his associates claiming Abbas feared that Israel would not recognize the new passports and not allow Palestinian Arabs to enter Israel through Israeli crossings.
This is not the first time that Abbas has announced plans to issue "State of Palestine" passports.
In 2012, after the United Nations overwhelmingly voted in favor of upgrading the PA's status at the organization to that of a "non-member observer state", Abbas issued guidelines ordering the PA government to re-issue passports, identity cards, registration documents, vehicle licenses, driver's licenses, stamps and postmarks with the name "State of Palestine" instead of Palestinian Authority.
But he later backed off from the plan , with his associates claiming Abbas feared that Israel would not recognize the new passports and not allow Palestinian Arabs to enter Israel through Israeli crossings.