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Benjamin Poet (West Bank) – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently stepped up his tours of the Middle East region, on diplomatic visits to serve his political future two months before leaving office after President Donald Trump lost the elections to his rival Joe Biden, who continues these days forming the new White Administration.
On Thursday, after a tour of Turkey, Mike Pompeo made the first visit by a US Secretary of State to an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank before passing through the Golan Heights in western Syria.
The Palestinians accused Pompeo, who, after visiting the Psagot settlement near Jerusalem, plans to head to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights today, of helping Israel consolidate its control over the land in the West Bank where they want to establish their state.
Veteran Palestinian negotiator Hanan Ashrawi accused Pompeo of using Trump’s final weeks in office “to set another illegal precedent, violate international law and possibly further his future political ambitions.”
“Pompeo was drunk on apartheid wine stolen from the Palestinian territories,” Ashrawi said. “It is opportunistic, it serves its interests and damages the chances of peace.”
Analysts see Pompeo’s visit to Israel as a sign of the outgoing President Donald Trump’s administration’s solidarity with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a move to the delight of Israel and the dismay of the Palestinians, Pompeo declared a year ago that the United States no longer considered Israeli settlements on land it captured in the 1967 Middle East war “incompatible with international law.”
In the West Bank, Pompeo toured a winery in Psagot and appointed one of its products a minister. The visit represents a sharp departure from previous US policy that deported senior White House administration officials from the settlements, which Palestinians see as obstacles to establishing a state that has viable elements in the future.
Before heading to the West Bank, Pompeo met with Netanyahu, who praised Trump for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and for Israeli sovereignty over the Golan, which Israel annexed in 1981 to a move few countries accepted.
Pompeo said: “The simple recognition of this (the Golan) as part of Israel, was an important and historic decision by President Trump, and simply an acknowledgment of reality.”
Later, Pompeo said in a statement that the United States would require that imports from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank be marked as “Made in Israel” or “an Israeli product.”
According to a Nov. 16 statement from four Republican senators, guidelines from the previous Democratic administration stipulated that products from the settlements be labeled “Made in the West Bank.” Many Israelis were alarmed after Trump’s defeat in the US presidential election, and Netanyahu waited 10 days after Joe Biden declared his victory to speak to the Democratic candidate and refer to him as president-elect.
The Palestinian leadership cut ties with the White House three years ago, accusing it of bias towards Israel.
It’s unclear whether Trump’s decision on settlements will be overturned by the future Biden administration, amid Israeli concerns that it will take a tougher stance on the issue generally.
Pompeo, who announced new sanctions on Iran during his visit to Israel, said Washington would step up its activities against efforts to isolate Israel economically and diplomatically.
During his meeting in Jerusalem, he said: “We will take immediate action to identify the organizations that participate in the abominable behavior of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement, and we will raise the support of the US government.”
“We will consider the BDS campaign against Israel to be anti-Semitic,” he added. Supporters of the campaign reject this characterization, saying they are against all forms of racism.
Human Rights Watch condemned Pompeo’s announcement of his intention to visit the Golan, saying it unfairly equated it between peaceful support for the boycott of Israel and anti-Semitism.
“Instead of fighting systemic racism and right-wing extremism in the United States, the Trump administration is undermining the common fight against the scourge of anti-Semitism by equating it with a peaceful call for a boycott,” said Eric Goldstein, the organization’s acting director at Middle East and North Africa.
