As under Trump, US report avoids ‘Occupied Territories’

Washington, US — US President Joe Biden’s administration held off Tuesday on using the term “Occupied Territories” in an annual human rights report, a formulation abandoned by staunchly pro-Israel predecessor Donald Trump.اضافة اعلان

Under Trump, the State Department’s reports on human rights starting with the edition released in 2018 have listed “Israel, West Bank and Gaza” and not “Israel and the Occupied Territories” — a semantic shift seen as rejecting the international consensus that Israel is an occupying force.

For the first report under Biden, which covers events in 2020, the State Department did not revert to earlier language but downplayed the significance.

“This section of the report covers the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem territories that Israel occupied during the June 1967 war,” it said.

“Language in this report is not meant to convey a position on any final status issues to be negotiated between the parties to the conflict, including the specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, or the borders between Israel and any future Palestinian state.”