The Biden administration has reinstated a rule banning US taxpayer funding for scientific and technological analysis in Israeli settlements within the occupied West Bank, the State Department introduced Monday.
The determination to reverse the Trump administration’s coverage from late 2020 that allowed funding to stream to the contested areas comes amid rising tensions in Israel and Palestine, and a dramatic improve in Israeli settlement constructing within the West Bank. The US maintains the settlements hinder the prospects for a long-sought two-state answer.
Spokesperson Matthew Miller mentioned the State Department “recently circulated foreign policy guidance” to US authorities companies “advising that engaging in bilateral scientific and technological cooperation with Israel in geographic areas which came under the administration of Israel after 1967, and which remain subject to final status negotiations, is inconsistent with US foreign policy.”
“The guidance is reflective of the longstanding US position, going back decades, reaffirmed by this administration, that the ultimate disposition of the geographic areas, which came of the administration of Israel after 1967 is a final status matter,” he instructed reporters.
“We’re reverting to US policy to long-standing pre-2020 geographic limitations on US support for activities in those areas, a policy that goes back decades,” he added.
In all, three Israeli establishments within the West Bank, together with Ariel University, might be affected. Miller didn’t have a greenback quantity on the quantity of presidency funding that might be curtailed.
Miller maintained the US “strongly values scientific and technical technological cooperation with Israel, and robust scientific and technological cooperation with Israel continues.”
Israel seized the West Bank in 1967. Under worldwide regulation, all Jewish settlements within the occupied territories are thought-about unlawful.
Source: www.anews.com.tr
