US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday became the first top American diplomat to visit a West Bank Jewish settlement and the disputed Golan Heights, cementing Donald Trump’s strongly pro-Israel legacy.On a farewell tour of the Middle East, Pompeo also said exports from the settlements could now be labelled as “Made in Israel” and called a boycott movement against the Jewish state a “cancer”.Pompeo held no meetings with Palestinians, who protested his actions and dismissed them as the latest sign of the outgoing Trump administration’s strong bias against them.Accompanied by Israeli Forei…
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Brooke Goldstein, Executive Director of the Lawfare Project, sent in the following comment:
Today is a historic day for all Israeli-owned businesses in the West Bank. While traveling in Israel, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued new guidelines to affirmatively state that Israeli-made goods from Judea and Samaria are to be labeled as “Made in Israel.”
First and foremost, I want to thank Secretary Pompeo for taking this decisive and necessary step to ensure that Jewish-owned businesses in the West Bank are not discriminated against. This is a tremendous victory for the entire Jewish community and for all people who stand against hate. This is exactly what we at The Lawfare Project have been fighting for since activists in Europe and Canada began applying anti-Semitic labels to Psâgot Winery’s products several years ago.
As you know, The Lawfare Project has been deeply involved in the fight against discriminatory labeling practices. We have supported legal action on behalf of Psâgot Winery in multiple jurisdictions since 2017 as they have fought for the right to have their products labeled as they are—products of Israel. Secretary Pompeo’s announcement came ahead of his visit to Psâgot Winery, where he acknowledged the targeted attacks they and other businesses like them have faced.
Psâgot Winery and other businesses in Judea and Samaria are in fact located in Israel and they have every right to have their products labeled accordingly. The Lawfare Project hopes this action serves as a declaration to the global community that Jew hatred will not be tolerated in consumer product labeling.
I especially want to congratulate Yaakov Berg, CEO of Psâgot Winery, for his unrelenting commitment to justice for the Jewish people.
T’ruah sent in the following comment:
NEW YORK — Today, T’ruah, a rabbinic human rights organization that represents over 2,000 rabbis and cantors and their communities, issued the following statement condemning the recent actions by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that classify the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) as antisemitic and his equation of the West Bank with Israel.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, executive director of T’ruah, released the following statement:
“In the same week that the Trump administration appointed a white nationalist sympathizer, Darren Beattie, to a commission that preserves Holocaust sites, Secretary Pompeo has no business lecturing the world on what constitutes antisemitism. By Pompeo equating settlements with Israel and declaring the BDS movement antisemitic, he has now declared anyone who boycotts settlements only — including many Israeli Jews — antisemitic.
“T’ruah does not participate in the BDS movement. But free speech — including the right to boycott — constitutes an essential component of democracy, a basic human right and a fundamental value of Judaism. The way to fight distasteful speech is with more speech, not by shutting down the other side. We learn this from the Talmud, where the rabbis frequently use colorful language to challenge and repudiate each others’ opinions, while leaving even rejected opinions in the text for later study.
“Secretary Pompeo further declared that products from Area C of the West Bank can be labeled as ‘Made in Israel.’ With this declaration, he abrogates decades of U.S. policy, while also ignoring both international and Israeli law, which both acknowledge that the West Bank is occupied territory, and not legally part of Israel.
“In recent years, some in the BDS movement and the extremist pro-settlement movement have attempted to blur the distinction between the settlements and Israel proper. This posture, from either side, delegitimizes the State of Israel as recognized by the United Nations in 1948.
“Furthermore, Secretary Pompeo’s statement lays the groundwork to attack and discredit human rights organizations, on the fallacious grounds of antisemitism. This effort to silence critics is a page from the autocrat’s playbook. By falsely smearing human rights organizations as antisemitic, the Trump administration will only make it harder to counter actual acts of antisemitism when they happen, while simultaneously harming these organizations’ effectiveness in reporting on all countries’ human rights abuses– including those of the United States.
“The American government must reaffirm a real commitment to creating a long-term agreement that protects the human rights and security of both Israelis and Palestinians by establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel, both within internationally recognized borders. Actions like Secretary Pompeo’s declaration risk provoking a backlash against Israel and against the American Jewish community, the majority of whom support a two-state solution and human rights for both Israelis and Palestinians.”