Pompeo Declares BDS Movement Antisemitic, Seeks to Defund Anti-Israel Boycott Campaigners

Pompeo Declares BDS Movement Antisemitic, Seeks to Defund Anti-Israel Boycott Campaigners

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recognized the anti-Israel boycott campaign, or the BDS Movement, as antisemitic.

The State Department “will regard the global anti-Israel BDS campaign as anti-Semitic,” Secretary Pompeo said during a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

The State Department “will immediately take steps to identify organizations that engage in hateful BDS conduct, and withdraw US government support for such groups.” Secretary Pompeo announced on the second day of his Israel trip.

“We want to join all the other nations that recognize BDS for the cancer that it is,” he added.

Thursday’s move will “cut off government support for any organizations taking part in it, a step that could deny funding to Palestinian and international human rights groups,” the Associated Press noted. President Donald Trump’s administration is considering cutting U.S. funding for international activist groups who have been supporting boycott calls against Israel, including big names like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Oxfam, news reports suggest. 

Israeli TV network i24News reported Secretary Pompeo’s remarks: 

The US government will take action against the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and groups that support it, US State Secretary Mike Pompeo said Thursday.

The statement was made in a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

‘We will regard the global anti-Israel BDS campaign as anti-Semitic,’ Pompeo said, adding that the designation will come along with concrete steps against it.

“We will immediately take steps to identify the organizations that engage in hateful BDS conduct and withdraw US government support from such groups,” he announced.

Pompeo minced no words, comparing the BDS movement with “cancer,” and reinstated the “ironclad” US commitment to Israel’s security: “During the [US President Donald] Trump administration, America stands with Israel like never before.”

On Thursday, Secretary Pompeo became the first U.S. Secretary of State to visit Israel’s Judea and Samaria region, often referred to in the mainstream media as the “West Bank.” President Trump last year recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the area. 

In a symbolic gesture, the Secretary of State visited the Psagot winery in Samaria. The top EU court, the European Court of Justice, in its November 2019 judgment, ruled against the winery, ordering mandatory labeling of products from the Judea and Samaria region as ‘settlement’ goods. 

“It is a blessing to be here in Judea and Samaria,” he wrote in the winery guestbook. “May I not be the last secretary of state to visit this beautiful land.”

Rejecting discriminatory labeling of Israeli products as mandated by the EU, Secretary Pompeo announced on Thursday that products made in areas under Israeli sovereignty, which includes Judea and Samaria, “ will be required to mark goods as “Israel,” “Product of Israel,” or “Made in Israel” when exporting to the United States. ” 

The Palestinian leadership was angered by Pompeo’s visit to the region and his decision to do away with the discriminatory labeling. “The decision blatantly violates international law,” a spokesman for Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas declared. The PA “condemned” the announcement as “yet another biased, pro-Israeli move by US President Donald Trump’s administration,” the Times of Israel reported. 

‘Secretary Mike Pompeo in Israel, Announces US Action Against BDS movement.’