State Department Found Under-Reporting Terror Attacks in Israel

Two U.S. congressmen have charged that the State Department has been under-reporting terror attacks on Israel, The Jerusalem Post reported on Thursday.

Republican congressmen Doug Lamborn from Colorado and David McKinley from West Virginia sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to review the department’s 2019 human rights report which said there were 101 attacks on Israelis in Yehuda and Shomron, much lower than official Israeli figures.

“The number of incidents recorded by the IDF and the Shin Bet security agency for 2019 is between 1,300 and 1,400 incidents,” they noted.

“The human rights reports play a central role in defending the rights of oppressed people around the world,” they wrote. “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.”

They requested that the State Department clarify its method of reporting, explaining how it decides which incidents to count, and whether it makes use of Israeli data.