U.S. State Dept. Drops “Occupied Territory” From Golan Description

Signs of the Last Days® MinistryNews

The U.S. State Department changed its usual description of the Golan Heights from “Israeli-occupied” to “Israeli-controlled” in an annual global human rights report.

The move came amid intensified efforts by Israel to win U.S. recognition of its claim to sovereignty over the strategic plateau it captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and effectively annexed in 1981, a step not recognized internationally.

The Golan – like the West Bank and Gaza Strip, territories also taken by Israel in the June 1967 conflict – is regarded internationally as occupied under a U.N. Security Council resolution passed later that year.

Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham recently toured the Golan with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and pledged to lobby the Trump administration to recognize the area as belonging to Israel.

Also, a separate section in the State Department report, on the West Bank and Gaza, did not include the terms “occupied” or under “occupation” in referring to the Palestinian territories.

The Palestinians have been increasingly concerned about the strength of a long-standing U.S. commitment to the creation of a state of their own in the West Bank and Gaza, a pledge stemming from interim peace deals with Israel signed in the 1990s.

Breaking with a decades-long policy, and drawing Palestinian accusations of pro-Israel bias, President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017.

Then he moved the U.S. Embassy to the contested holy city from Tel Aviv last year.

Washington officials have been saying for some time that the U.S. would present a new Israeli-Palestinian peace plan but continue to delay it, last announcing the intent to do so after Israel’s April 9 election.

The Biblical prophecies (Zechariah 14, Luke 21, Revelation 7) foretell that Israel and Jerusalem will become the focus of the world in the Last Days signaling we are nearing the end of this age and the coming of Jesus Christ.

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