US says no change in stance on Golan’s status

13 March 2019, 5:48 pm

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The United States says its use of the term “Israel-controlled” in reference to the Golan Heights in a new State Department report on human rights does not indicate a change in policy toward the Israeli-held territory.

“Our policy on Golan has not changed,” a spokesperson for the US Embassy in Jerusalem tells The Times of Israel.

“We retitled the Human Rights Report to refer to the commonly used geographic names of the area the report covers,” the spokesperson adds.

Israel captured the area from Syria in the 1967 Six Day War and later applied Israeli law to the Golan Heights in 1981. The move, tantamount to annexation, was not recognized by the international community.

— Raphael Ahren