Global Courant
WASHINGTON
The State Department announced on Monday that the Biden administration is reinstating a rule that prohibits US taxpayers from funding scientific and technological research in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The Trump administration’s decision to reverse its policy from late 2020, which allows for the flow of funds to disputed areas, comes amid rising tensions in Israel and Palestine and a dramatic increase in Israeli settlement building in the West Bank. The US argues that settlements thwart long-sought hopes for a two-state solution.
Spokesman Matthew Miller said the State Department “recently distributed foreign policy guidance recommending to US government agencies to engage in bilateral scientific and technological cooperation with Israel in the geographic areas that came under Israeli administration after 1967 and were subject to final status.” The negotiations are inconsistent with US foreign policy.”
“The Guidance reflects the longstanding position of the United States that goes back decades and is reaffirmed by this administration that the final arrangement of geographic areas from Israeli rule after 1967 is a matter of final status,” he told reporters.
“We are returning to the long-standing pre-2020 geo-restrictions on US support for activities in these areas, a policy that dates back decades.”
A total of three Israeli institutions in the West Bank will be affected, including Ariel University. Miller did not have a dollar amount on the amount of government funding to be curtailed.
Miller argued that the United States “highly values scientific and technical-technological cooperation with Israel and continues sound scientific and technological cooperation with Israel.”
Israel captured the West Bank in 1967. Under international law, all Jewish settlements in the occupied territories are considered illegal.
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