The U.S. State Department has said that it would amend its human-rights report published four months ago following a letter from two Republican congressmen stating that the number of terrorist attacks against Israel has been under-reported, wrote Israel Hayom.
The State Department’s “Israel 2019 Human Rights Report,” published in March, states that Palestinians committed 101 acts of violence against Israeli civilians in the West Bank.
However, according to the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet, between 1,300 and 1,400 such attacks took place in 2019.
“The human-rights reports play a central role in defending the rights of oppressed people around the world,” wrote Reps. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) and David McKinley (R-W.Va.) in a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “The United States must maintain integrity and accuracy when reporting on this important issue. Continuing to examine as many sources as possible to ensure the accuracy of these reports should be a top priority.”
In the letter, the members of Congress asked Pompeo whether the State Department has “considered including information obtained from official Israeli government reports, such as Israeli police and IDF reports?”
Lamborn told The Jerusalem Post, “The United States plays a crucial role in standing up for human rights around the world. This is especially critical in protecting the sovereignty of the only democracy in the Middle East and one of our closest allies, Israel. I look forward to Secretary Pompeo’s response and I appreciate his leadership at the State Department, under which our special friendship with Israel continues to grow ever stronger. I’m hopeful any bureaucratic malfeasance will be dealt with quickly.”