GOP senators want Trump to label West Bank products as ‘Made in Israel’
A group of Republicans senators led by Arkansas’ Tom Cotton are urging the Trump administration to label West Bank goods as “Made in Israel.” Previous administrations have treated the West Bank as an occupied territory since the 1967 war.
A letter sent to Trump by the lawmakers was obtained by Axios. “This decision would support Israel and push back against anti-Semitism and the BDS movement,” it states.
This week Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is scheduled to tour a winery in Jabal al-Tawil, making him the first Secretary of State to ever visit an illegal settlement. The Trump administration previously recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and opened a U.S. embassy there in 2018. Last year, it declared that West Bank settlements do not violate international law. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrated that decision, saying that Trump had embraced a “historical truth — that the Jewish people are not foreign colonialists in Judea and Samaria.”
One of the signatories of Cotton’s letter is Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler, who will face Rev. Raphael Warnock in a runoff election next year. The Loeffler campaign has smeared Warnock for being “anti-Israel”, over the fact he once signed a letter comparing West Bank conditions to those of apartheid South Africa and gave a sermon condemning the murder of nonviolent Palestinian protestors.
In addition to Cotton and Loeffler, the letter was also signed by Senators Marco Rubio (FL) and Ted Cruz (TX).
No comments:
Post a Comment