Fact Check

Did Palestinians Recognize Texas as Part of Mexico?

Report holds that the Palestinian consulate in Mexico City will soon be moved to Houston in recognition of Texas' changed status.

Published Dec. 7, 2017

 (The Beaverton)
Image Via The Beaverton
Claim:
The Palestinian National Authority has announced that it will recognize Texas as a state of Mexico.

On 6 December 2017, President Donald Trump announced a shift in foreign policy under which the U.S. would officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and he set in motion a plan to move the American Embassy to that city from Tel Aviv.

Although President Trump's Jerusalem announcement had broad support across the U.S., it also drew criticism and protests from many Americans, from U.S. allies, and from the Arab world:

The Islamist group Hamas urged Palestinians to abandon peace efforts and launch a new uprising against Israel in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as its capital.

Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy by recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, angering the Arab world and upsetting Western allies.

The status of Jerusalem, home to sites considered holy to Muslims, Jews and Christians, is one of the biggest obstacles to a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

“We should call for and we should work on launching an intifada (Palestinian uprising) in the face of the Zionist enemy,” Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a speech in Gaza.

Later on the day of the contentious announcement, the web site The Beaverton spoofed the controversy it engendered with an article positing that Palestinians had similarly opted to recognize the U.S. state of Texas as still being a part of Mexico:

JERUSALEM – In response to US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, the Palestinian National Authority has announced that it will recognize Texas as a state of Mexico since it was violently annexed by the United States in the 1840s.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says that this is a new approach to Mexican-US relations, and hopes it will help ease the tension between the two countries over security and immigration.

The Palestinian consulate in Mexico City will soon be moved to Houston to formally recognize the seized territory as part of Mexico.

Although the article was nothing more than a bit of fabricated humor, many readers who encountered the spoof through social media postings mistook it for a genuine news report, not knowing that The Beaverton is a satirical web site, as stated in their disclaimer:

The Beaverton is a news satire and parody publication . All articles contained within this website, however similar to real events, are fictitious. When public figures are mentioned by name, the corresponding story details are invented. In all other cases, any resemblance to actual persons or events is entirely coincidental.

Sources

Huntley, Alex.   "Palestinians Recognize Texas as Part of Mexico."     The Beaverton.   6 December 2017.

Williams, Dan and Nidal al-Mughrabi.   "Hamas Calls for Palestinian Uprising Over Trump's Jerusalem Plan."     Reuters.   7 December 2017.

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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