Pompeo starts tour of West Bank, Golan Heights
JERUSALEM: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was Thursday set to make the first visit by an American top diplomat to the Israel-occupied Golan Heights after a stop in a West Bank Jewish settlement that infuriated Palestinians.
The envoy of US President Donald Trump, who has made a staunchly pro-Israel stance a hallmark of his turbulent term in power, also called the proPalestinian BDS movement a ‘cancer’ that Washington would designate as anti-Semitic.
After meeting close ally
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Pompeo announced that ‘today I will get a chance to visit the Golan Heights,’ the strategic territory the Jewish state seized from Syria in the SixDay War of 1967.
Last year, Trump’s administration made the controversial decision to recognise Israeli sovereignty in the Golan – a move Pompeo on Thursday called ‘historically important and simply a recognition of the reality’.
Pompeo also announced a new pro-Israel policy, stating that Washington would designate as ‘anti-Semitic’ the BDS or Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign which calls for a wide-ranging embargo against Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians.
“We will immediately take steps to identify organisations that engage in hateful BDS conduct and withdraw US government support for such groups,” Pompeo said in a joint appearance with Netanyahu.
“We want to stand with all other nations that recognise the BDS movement for the cancer that it is.”