The Trump administration has dropped any reference to the Golan Heights as being “occupied” by Israel in its latest Global Human Rights Report.
The State Department said the area was "Israeli-controlled", in a yearly report that outlines the human rights situation around the world.
For the second year, the report also does not use the word "occupied" in the sections relating the West Bank and Gaza.
The State Department said it did not consider this phrasing to represent a policy change, saying the report focuses on human rights rather than legal issues.
The US ambassador to the Bureau of Human Rights, Michael Kozak, said “occupied” was not a human rights term.
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights in the 1967 Middle East war.