Washington Reverses Trump Policy on Funding Research in West Bank Settlements

A view shows the Israeli settlement of Psagot in the West Bank, on Feb. 13, 2020. Ammar Awad/REUTERS

The Biden administration has reportedly reversed the U.S. policy of funding research in Israeli neighborhoods in the West Bank.

Israel confirmed the news as its foreign minister, Eli Cohen, decried this development.

“I object to the decision and think it is wrong,” he said during a press conference. “In similar cases in the past, the Israeli government fully reimbursed parties damaged by such decisions.”

The Trump administration in October 2020 lifted the U.S. ban on funding research in Israeli areas of the West Bank, also known as Judea and Samaria.

“The Trump vision ... opens Judea and Samaria to academic, commercial and scientific engagement with the United States,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the time.

A State Department spokesperson told Axios that the department “recently circulated foreign policy guidance to relevant agencies advising that engaging in bilateral scientific and technological cooperation with Israel [in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights] is inconsistent with U.S. foreign policy.”

Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights in 1967.

The spokesperson noted that the United States still “strongly values scientific and technological cooperation.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) denounced the reversal and accused the Biden administration of a double standard.

“Joe Biden and Biden administration officials are pathologically obsessed with undermining Israel. Since day one of their administration they have launched campaigns against our Israeli allies that are granular, whole of government, and done in secret,” he said in a June 25 statement.

“This new boycott of Israeli Jews is yet another example. The State Department is telling the entire U.S. government not to cooperate with Jews in Judea and Samaria. And of course, it was sent to Congress in secret and only revealed because reporters found out.

“The Biden administration defends funding scientific research in Wuhan with the Chinese Communist Party, but they’re discriminating against and banning cooperation with Jews based on where they live.”

David Friedman, then-President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Israel, denounced the Biden administration’s move as partaking in the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

“Make no mistake. The United States, by this action, is embracing the BDS Movement, violating a binding bilateral agreement with Israel, and creating a lose/lose dynamic whereby the people of the region—Israelis and Palestinians—will lose the most,” Friedman posted on Twitter on June 25.

The Biden administration’s move comes as it has criticized Israel for building neighborhoods in the West Bank.

“The United States is deeply troubled by the Israeli government’s reported decision to advance planning for over 4,000 settlement units in the West Bank,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a June 18 statement.

“We are similarly concerned by reports of changes to Israel’s system of settlement administration that expedite the planning and approvals of settlements.

“As has been longstanding policy, the United States opposes such unilateral actions that make a two-state solution more difficult to achieve and are an obstacle to peace.

“We call on the Government of Israel to fulfill the commitments it made in Aqaba, Jordan and Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt and return to dialogue aimed at de-escalation.”