STATE DEPT. DROPS ‘OCCUPIED’ REFERENCE TO PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES IN REPORT: An annual USA government report on human rights has dropped reference to the Palestinian territories as "occupied" for the first time since 1979. The State Department report, now lists its section on Israel and the territories by their names: Gaza and the West Bank, (Judea & Samaria) alongside the Golan Heights. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and has no administrative control over the Strip. But it maintains full security control over Judea & Samaria through military occupation, and continues to approve construction for Israeli settlers to live there. "The lie of the occupied Palestinian territories begins to be revealed," Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman wrote in response to the new report. "They say that a lie repeated often enough becomes true, but the truth is always stronger. The State Department report is proof of that," Liberman wrote. (Arutz-7)