Pompeo visits Israeli settlement in first by top US diplomat
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo paid the first-ever visit by a top US diplomat to an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank on Thursday after announcing a new initiative to combat the international Palestinian-led boycott movement.
The visit to the settlement, and the announcement that the US would brand the boycott movement as anti-Semitic and cut off all funding for groups that participate in it, together offered a parting gift to Israel from an administration that has broken with decades of US policy to endorse Israel’s claims to territory seized in war.
A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the visit to the Psagot winery in a settlement near Jerusalem to reporters traveling with Pompeo, who were not allowed to accompany him. Pompeo had earlier said he would pay a visit to the Golan Heights. Israel seized the West Bank and the Golan Heights in the 1967 war and later annexed the Golan in a move not recognized internationally. Israel has built dozens of settlements in the West Bank, which the Palestinians want for their future state. Most of the international community views the settlements as a violation of international law and an obstacle to peace.
Pompeo announced that the US will regard the Palestinianled boycott movement as “antiSemitic” and cut off government
support for any organizations taking part in it, a step that could deny funding to Palestinian and international human rights groups. “We will regard the global, anti-Israel BDS campaign as antiSemitic,” Pompeo said, referring to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
“We will immediately take steps to identify organizations that engage in hateful BDS conduct and withdraw US government support for such groups,” he said, adding that all nations should “recognize the BDS movement for the cancer that it is.”
BDS organizers cast their movement as a nonviolent way of protesting Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians modeled on the campaign that helped end apartheid in South Africa. The movement has had some limited success over the years but no impact on the Israeli economy.
Israel views BDS as an assault on its very existence, and has seized on statements by some supporters to accuse it of anti-Semitism, allegations denied by organizers.
In a statement, the
BDS movement reiterated its rejection of “all forms of racism, including anti-Jewish racism,” and accused the US and Israel of trying to silence advocacy for Palestinian rights. “The BDS movement for Palestinian freedom, justice and equality, stands with all those struggling for a more dignified, just and beautiful world,” it said. “With our many partners, we shall resist these McCarthyite attempts to intimidate and bully Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights defenders into accepting Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism as fate.”
Pompeo did not provide additional details about the initiative, and it was unclear what organizations would be at risk of losing funding. Israelis have accused international groups like
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International of supporting BDS, allegations they deny.
Human Rights Watch, whose researcher was deported from Israel last year for past statements allegedly in support of BDS, does not call for boycotting Israel but urges companies to avoid doing business in West Bank settlements, saying it makes them complicit in human rights abuses. Amnesty does not take a position on the boycott movement.
“The Trump administration is undermining the common fight against the scourge of antisemitism by equating it with peaceful advocacy of boycotts,” Eric Goldstein, acting Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.