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.<br />This is not the first time that Abbas has announced plans to issue "State of Palestine" passports.<br />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.<br />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.
