France24 Arabic uses derogatory Arab term “1948 Lands” instead of “Israel”

 

France24 Arabic has a story about Palestinians being allowed to go into Israel for beach vacations using the headline “The entry of Palestinians to the 48 Lands for recreation ignites social media.”

The term “48 Lands” was made up by Palestinians to describe Israel within the 1949 armistice lines, to avoid using the term “Israel.” The entire point of the expression is to say that Israel has no legitimacy.

Previous uses of the term by France24 Arabic were all quotes of Arabs, with one exception last year where they used the term as “the ‘48 internationally recognized territories of Israel.”

As far as I can tell, this is the first time that a major international news service has used the term “48 lands” as a normative term for Israel.

It is a huge insult for France24 to use the term in a straight news story.

(h/t Yoel)