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Settlement of Psagot (Palestinian Territories) (AFP)
A year ago, Yaakov Berg opened a bottle of red wine called “Pompeo” that he makes in a settlement in the occupied West Bank, perhaps he repeated that Thursday, accompanied by the US Secretary of State, who visited the Psagot settlement today.
The Israeli winemaker decided to name his wine in honor of the US Secretary of State to thank him for his stance on Israeli settlements, which he considered legal. For him, if the name “Pompeo” on the bottle attracts attention, but the label in the upper right corner of the bottle with “Legally Made” is more important.
The settlements are illegal in the eyes of the international community.
“We are not thieves, we have not stolen this land,” said Berg, whose wine factory is located in the Psagot settlement, which Pompeo visited today, on top of a hill near Ramallah.
Before Pompeo arrived at the settlement, the visit was being prepared as a party. In the place, flags of Israel and the United States were raised, a giant tent was erected in the place and a large number of chairs were placed, as well as bouquets of flowers.
Pompeo became the first US Secretary of State to visit a settlement. He announced, according to a statement issued by his team during the visit, that the United States will classify Israeli exports from occupied West Bank settlements as Israeli.
Pompeo said: “All producers within the areas in which Israel exercises relevant powers (…) shall label products in the name of + Israel + or + Israeli product +, or + Made in Israel +, when exported to the United States.
On the other hand, the European Union requires that products produced in Israeli settlements be labeled so that they are made in illegal places.
Berg, who exports his product to Europe, fought hard against this decision, saying it was “racist and anti-Semitic”.
He believes that Pompeo’s attitude towards the settlements and his visit to the winery will make his name a milestone “in the history of the Jewish people.”
Pompeo said last year that the United States, led by Donald Trump, did not consider settlements built in the occupied Palestinian territories illegal, prompting international criticism.
Berg continues that Pompeo’s visit will make the Republican minister a figure Jews will remember “in a hundred years,” adding that Pompeo’s positions “were strong against all those … who consider our presence here illegal.” .
“I felt we had to honor him, thank him, and really show him some appreciation,” he adds.
“If international relations should be based on bottles of wine, let’s avoid diplomacy,” Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Ishtayyeh told reporters.
– ‘Looted soil’ –
According to the Israeli anti-occupation organization Peace Now, the Berg winery is located on “stolen land” that was gradually taken away from the Palestinians who own it.
Peace Now said: “A large part of the grapes that produce wine comes from looted land.”
He described Pompeo’s visit as “a last pathetic attempt to undermine the prospects for peace by normalizing the settlements.”
The Trump administration contradicted decades of American practices by failing to criticize the expansion of settlements in the West Bank, supporting the annexation of the Golan Heights, which Pompeo also visited, and recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
– “We are here forever” –
Berg hoped that Trump would be reelected president. “Let’s wait and see,” he says, referring to Trump still not admitting defeat to Joe Biden.
As for whether the Biden era will bring a change in the American position, Berg says Trump’s approach has clearly succeeded: “We have peace and calm.”
“We have our Palestinian neighbors and we believe that we can live together,” he added, noting that he pays his Palestinian employees a higher salary than they can earn in Ramallah.
Berg insists that any peace process depends on Jews remaining in the “Judea and Samaria region,” the biblical name for the West Bank.
“We are here forever,” he says.
© 2020 AFP
