Dichter downplays US claim of settler terror: ‘They are drawing on media reports’

Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter has downplayed the US use of the term “terror” in describing suspicions against two settlers in the killing of a young Palestinian on Friday.

“I wouldn’t advise treating the US definition as a precise professional definition. At the end of the day, they are not drawing on intelligence, but on media reports,” Dichter told Army Radio, in comments published by Reuters.

“Everything gets poured into media reports — things that are correct, things that are wrong, tendentious and other things. In the end of the day, what is important as far as we are concerned is what happened there.”

Police suspect two settlers in the killing outside the West Bank town of Burqa. One is currently hospitalized for injuries sustained during clashes. The other was released earlier today to house arrest.