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 |  Subject: Thieving kikes co-opt Pompeo: announces reversal of longstanding US policy on Israeli settlements  Mon Nov 18, 2019 8:54 pm | |
| US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday announced a major reversal of the US' longstanding policy on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, rejecting a 1978 State Department legal opinion that deemed the settlements "inconsistent with international law."
The announcement, which breaks with international law and consensus, is the latest in a string of hardline, pro-Israeli moves that are likely to inflame tensions between the Trump administration and Palestinians and widen the divide between the Trump administration and traditional US allies in Europe.
"After carefully studying all sides of the legal debate... the establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not, per se, inconsistent with international law," Pompeo said, citing President Ronald Reagan's 1981 assessment that the settlements were not "inherently illegal."
Pompeo said the US government is "expressing no view on the legal status of any individual settlement" or "addressing or prejudging the ultimate status of the West Bank."
'False claim'He said the conclusion was "based on the unique facts, history and circumstances presented by the establishment of civilian settlements in the West Bank."
The new US position was swiftly repudiated by the European Union, with diplomats noting President Donald Trump's desire to woo evangelical voters and privately saying the move reflects a US willingness to "give the finger" to international law.
And even as Pompeo tried, misleadingly, to present the move as continuation of a previous president's policies, the State Department tacitly recognized the disruption the shift could cause by issuing a sweeping travel warning for all US government facilities, US private interests and US citizens in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem.
International law holds that an occupying power cannot build civilian settlements on occupied territories. Under international law, the West Bank is seen as occupied territory, a conclusion Israel disputes.
Pompeo tried to suggest that the Trump White House was simply echoing an earlier stand by Reagan, saying, "This administration agrees with President Reagan." But the Trump administration is going significantly farther.
Since President Jimmy Carter, no president has described Israeli settlements as "illegal," preferring to refer to them as "obstacles to peace" or "illegitimate," but no president, including Reagan, reversed the 1978 State Department finding.
The EU was quick to issue a statement, emphasizing that their "position on Israeli settlement policy in the occupied Palestinian territory is clear and remains unchanged: all settlement activity is illegal under international law and it erodes the viability of the two-state solution and the prospects for a lasting peace."
'An occupying power'The EU called "on Israel to end all settlement activity, in line with its obligations as an occupying power."
Two senior European diplomats in the region told CNN the announcement showed contempt for international law, one calling it a "shameful decision that highlights the extent to which the Trump administration has departed from international consensus and is willing to give the finger to international law."
It would be received by Palestinians "as further evidence that the Trump Administration is already implementing the so-called 'Deal of the Century' and is beholden to Israel's right-wing settler movement and to certain Christian Evangelical groups in the United States that unquestioningly support the Israeli right," the European diplomat continued.
In contrast, Pompeo's announcement was hailed by embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces possible criminal indictment in three corruption probes, as well as being involved in a fight to remain Israel's leader, after inconclusive elections two months ago.
"Today, the United States adopted an important policy that rights a historical wrong when the Trump administration clearly rejected the false claim that Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria are inherently illegal under international law," Netanyahu said.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/18/politics/pompeo-west-bank-settlements-announcement/index.html
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“The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual, crime.”-- Max Stirner
"Remember: Evil exists because good men don't kill the government officials committing it." -- Kurt Hofmann |
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