In a move that has further legitimized Israel’s illegal settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territory, the US and Israel have expanded a number of existing scientific cooperation agreements to now include Israeli institutions in the occupied West Bank and the Golan Heights.
The new agreement, signed on Wednesday between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, amended three existing scientific cooperation agreements between the two countries.
According to the original agreements, which were created back in the 1970’s, cooperative projects between the US and Israel “may not be conducted in geographical areas which came under the administration of the State of Israel after June 5, 1967, and may not relate to subjects primarily pertinent to such areas.”
The new amendments will now for the first time allow US taxpayer money to be spent in Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law.
The US Embassy in Israel said in a statement that amendment “further strengthens the special bilateral relationship” between the two countries, and that “these geographic restrictions are no longer consistent with U.S. policy.”
The Trump administration broke with decades of US and international policy last year when it announced that the US would no longer consider Israeli settlements to be illegal.
Wednesday’s signing ceremony took place in the mega settlement of Ariel, which lies in the heart of the occupied West Bank — the municipal boundaries of which contain several enclaves of privately owned Palestinian land that were seized by the Israeli state back in 1978, when the settlement was established.
Ariel is one of the largest settlements in the West Bank, and is home to some 20,000 Israeli settlers, and boasts a university, shopping center, industrial zone, hospital, and medical school.
Ariel University, where the signing ceremony took place, is the only Israeli institution of its kind in the West Bank, and unlike other Isralei universities, has been barred from receiving funds not only from the US, but from the EU and the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development.
The university has been the subject of a number of academic boycotts by international and Israeli academics, in protest of ongoing settlement expansion and Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank.
Prime Minister Netanyahu said Wednesday’s events were a message to “those malevolent boycotters,” that “you are wrong and you will fail, because we are resolved to build our lives and our ancestral homeland and to never be uprooted from here again.”
“This is an important victory over everyone who seeks to delegitimize anything Israeli over ’67 lines,” Netanyahu said, adding that the agreements being signed at Ariel University were of “huge significance.”
Other Israeli politicians hailed the agreement as another step in the right direction towards Israel’s plain for annexation in the West Bank, with Israeli higher education minister Zeev Elkin telling Axios reporter Barak Ravid that Wednesday’s events were “a big achievement for Israel’s sovereignty” in the West Bank and “another step towards international recognition of our rights” there.
Palestinian leaders and activists criticized the move as another attempt by the US administration to whitewash Israel’s occupation, and further pave the way for Israel to illegally annex more Palestinian land.
Hanan Ashrawi, Executive Committee member of the PLO called the agreement a “blatant unlawful act,” in a statement.
“Extending US funding to the occupied West Bank, including illegal Israeli settlements, is a clear recognition of Israel´s annexation of Palestinian territory,” she said, adding “this upgrades the Trump administration’s involvement in Israeli war crimes to active and willful participation.”
Ashrawi criticized the timing of the agreement, which she said was “a mad rush” made in the eleventh hour to “provide Israel with deliverables before January 2021, including normalization, economic benefits, and endorsement of annexation.”
The timing of the amendment, which was made just a week before the US elections, was criticized by many as an attempt to further as many of Trump and Netanyahu’s policies in the region as possible, in the event that Trump is not reelected on November 3rd.
Critics pointed to reports that, while the charge for the amendment was led by Friedman, it was reportedly pushed heavily by American billionaire Sheldon Adelson who is a major donor to both Ariel University and President Donald Trump.
Haaretz quoted sources as saying that Adelson “pressured the American administration to hold the ceremony ahead of the U.S. election on Tuesday.”
In addition to the timing of the announcement, the amendment is significant not only for its essential recognition of Israeli annexation, but for the fact that because it was made as a diplomatic agreement, it cannot be unilaterally reversed by a subsequent American administration, should Trump lose the upcoming election.
Palestinians have also expressed concerns that the agreement could result in pressure on the EU — the source of the majority of foreign funding for Israel’s scientific institutions — to follow suit.
“This must be a wake-up call to the European Union and individual European States. Instead of contemplating an upgrade in EU-Israeli cooperation as a reward for a blatant lie, the European Union must show moral and legal leadership and hold Israel accountable for its crimes,” Hanan Ashrawi said.
Trump has shamed us internationally, by moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem, gifting the Golan Heights to Israel, and now this terrible decision. This is recognizing the illegal settlements, and giving it some legitimacy. He has made us looked even more of a pariah nation, where Israel is concerned. No wonder the zionists approve of him, he has been the useful tool to defy the world, and get what the US and other Western nations refused to grant Israel.
There is no chance that Biden/Harris will dare to rescind any of these policies. I am sure behind this disgusting move, there may be Adelson or some rich American zionist, who is willing to part with their millions towards the cash strapped Trump campaign. Perhaps this is why this hasty decision at the last moment before elections. It is outrageous that the American people have no say where there tax money goes to. Trump is a scumbag, who will sell anything that does not belong to him, for personal gain.
http://www.dci.plo.ps/en/article/16754/Dr-Hanan-Ashrawi-Dr-Hanan-Ashrawi-Trump-administration-is-preempting-US-elections-by-recognizing-Israeli-annexation-of-the-West-Bank
The Palestine Liberation Organization, Press Release, Oct. 28/20
Dr. Hanan Ashrawi: ‘Trump administration is preempting U.S. elections by recognizing Israeli annexation of the West Bank.’
“The agreement between Israel and the United States to gut all mention of the 1967 borders out of bilateral cooperation agreements between the two countries is a blatant unlawful act. Extending US funding to the occupied West Bank, including illegal Israeli settlements, is a clear recognition of Israel´s annexation of Palestinian territory. This upgrades the Trump administration’s involvement in Israeli war crimes to active and willful participation.
“The Trump administration is now funding Israel’s colonization of Palestinian land and dispossession of its people with US taxpayer dollars.
“The U.S. administration and Netanyahu government are scurrying to bring about this de facto recognition of Israeli annexation at the eleventh hour. In a mad rush to provide Israel with deliverables before January 2021, including normalization, economic benefits, and endorsement of annexation, the Trump administration thinks it can deliver Palestine to Israel on a silver platter. It is rewarding Israel with recognition of annexation in advance.
“The Trump administration is pre-empting election results to bring its policy to its natural conclusion. For this administration, the goal has always been facilitating and legitimizing annexation. This agreement is an assault on the basic principles of international law and UN Security Council resolutions, including 2334 (2016). The world is on notice: Israel and the US are upending international law by legitimizing annexation and aggression.
“This must be a wake-up call to the European Union and individual European States. Instead of contemplating an upgrade in EU-Israeli cooperation as a reward for a blatant lie, the European Union must show moral and legal leadership and hold Israel accountable for its crimes.
“Realities resulting from illegal actions are null and void.
“This agreement neither diminishes fundamental Palestinian rights nor changes the Palestinian people’s rightful demand for freedom. We will not relent or surrender to this partnership of aggression.”
“U.S. to allow ‘Israel’ to be added to passports of Americans born in Jerusalem”
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/28/us-passports-israel-jerusalem-433324
American passports have not used the phrase “Jerusalem, Israel” because the exact status of the city has long been disputed as part of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Prior to Trump, U.S. policy had been that the city’s borders and status are issues subject to negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. Thus, U.S. passports have simply stated their bearers were born in “Jerusalem.”…The U.S. official said the new policy, at least as of Wednesday, is that U.S. passport holders who were born in Jerusalem will have the option of having Israel listed as the country or simply leaving it as “Jerusalem.” The State Department is expected to make the announcement…U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman has been a major proponent of changing the passport rules to allow the listing of “Jerusalem, Israel.”
So now it’s Jerusalem, Israel.