US State Department Drops Term ‘Occupied Territories’ from Its Annual Human Right Report
WAFA News Agency quotes USCPR Executive Director Yousef Munayyer on the US State Department’s omission of the term “occupied territories” in its annual human rights report in reference to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.
Yousef Munayyer, political analyst at the Arab Center of Washington, DC, executive director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, described the State Department’s omission of the term ‘occupied territories’ in their human rights report covering the West Bank and Gaza as “a new low.”
“How is it possible to even understand the human rights obligations of actors on the ground when the framework of occupation, for which international humanitarian law clearly delineates rights and responsibilities, is discarded?” he said.
“Perhaps, however, this is a clarifying moment. If the territories are not occupied, what will the State Department tell us their status is? Are they prepared to acknowledge the Apartheid reality that Israel has established on the ground? They may have just unintentionally done so.”
