By Jimmy Quinn
Thursday, November 19, 2020
JERUSALEM — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced
Thursday, during a visit here, that the State Department will consider the
anti-Israel BDS campaign “anti-Semitic” and withdraw U.S. government support
from organizations engaged in such “hateful BDS conduct.”
Calling the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions push a
“cancer” and vowing to stand with like-minded nations on the issue, the
secretary spoke via a livestream from Jerusalem Thursday morning. He stood
beside Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, taking no questions.
The Trump administration official is on a post-election,
multi-country swing through Europe and the Middle East apparently designed to
highlight the administration’s foreign policy legacy. During previous stops,
America’s top diplomat highlighted the Trump administration’s advocacy of
religious freedom and support for key allies.
Thursday’s announcement might be one of Pompeo’s final
expressions of U.S. support for Israel during his State Department tenure as
President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take office.
The BDS movement, as the name implies, promotes boycotts
and sanctions against Israel through various avenues. According to the
campaign’s website, it aims to end Israel’s administration of East Jerusalem,
Gaza, and the Golan Heights, achieve equal rights for Israel’s Arab citizens,
and return Palestinian refugees to Israeli territory.
Opponents of the movement claim that BDS in fact seeks
the elimination of the state of Israel, and that its singling out of the
country meets the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of
anti-Semitism.
Omar Barghouti, a co-founder of the BDS movement, has
said that he personally supports a one-state solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but that the movement as a whole endorses no
particular political solution.
In a statement released by his office on Thursday, Pompeo
said that he directed the State Department’s envoy on combating anti-Semitism
“to identify organizations that engage in, or otherwise support, the Global BDS
Campaign.”
According to the statement, the consequences will be
twofold. The State Department will look to ensure that it does not
inadvertently fund BDS, and it will review its legal options to cut funding to
foreign organizations engaged in BDS-related activities — essentially turning
the tables on the movement by boycotting its supporters from a government
standpoint.
Politico
first reported earlier this month that Pompeo would announce a process to
designate certain groups as anti-Semitic, without naming any particular
organizations, as he previously considered.
The comments by Pompeo and Netanyahu focused on
celebrating the close U.S.-Israel ties that have existed during the Trump
years.
“Over the last four years, under President Trump and his
remarkable team led by you and Ambassador Friedman and Jared Kushner and
others, Israel’s alliance with the U.S. has reached unprecedented heights,”
said Netanyahu, who went on to list the numerous steps the Trump administration
has taken to support his country, including moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem
and withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal.
“Thank you, friend,” he said to Pompeo. “And we hope to
see you next year in Jerusalem.”
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