Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Rex Tillerson Uses ‘Palestine’ — Will White House Retract Remark Again?

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson used the term “Palestine” in an interview about the Mideast peace talks, just days after a White House official was forced to walk back using the term that implies recognition of the Palestinians’ right to statehood.

In a discussion about President Trump’s upcoming visit to the region and possibly moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, Tillerson appeared to equate the state of Israel and the Palestinians.

“As you know, the president has recently expressed his view that he wants to put a lot of effort into seeing if we cannot advance a peace initiative between Israel and Palestine,” Tillerson said. “

Just last week, White House social media director Dan Scavino raised hackles by listing “Palestine” as one of the destinations on Trump’s upcoming trip to the region. After reporters and others flagged the issue, he amended the itinerary to list the “Palestinian Territories.”

But with the Secretary of State himself using the term “Palestine,” will it become widely used?

That would be a blow to far right=wingers who believe there is no such thing as a nation of Palestine, that there is no Israeli occupation and that the Jewish state should be free to rule the West Bank indefinitely as it sees fit.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.