US removes term ‘occupied territories’ for Golan, West Bank

The US State Department removed the term “occupied territories” in referring to the Golan Heights and West Bank in its annual report on Human Rights. It also removed the term “occupied” when referring to Gaza.

A State Department official said that there was “no US policy change on the status of the Palestinian territories,” but that the word “occupied” was not used because the report focused on human rights and not legal issues.