The US has refused to compare Russian and Israeli occupation and annexation of other countries’ territories, declining to condemn the latter. US State Department spokesperson Ned Price rejected comparisons made by UN human rights expert Navi Pillay about Russia and Israel’s abuses of civilians living under the occupation of the two countries’ military forces. Israel has illegally occupied the Palestinian West Bank and East Jerusalem for more than 50 years, while Russia and its allied militias seized Crimea and parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk areas of Ukraine in 2014 and further Ukrainian terr…