(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) The Biden administration has reinstated a ban from the Obama administration barring taxpayer funding toward research and development and scientific cooperation projects with Israeli settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights.
Axios reported on June 25 that the administration informed the Israeli government about the reinstatement of the ban a couple weeks prior; a spokesperson from the administration told Axios that they staunchly believe in and will continue “scientific and technological cooperation” with Israel and that the ban reflects “the longstanding U.S. position … that the ultimate disposition of the geographic areas which came under the administration of Israel after June 5, 1967 is a final status matter and that we are working towards a negotiated two-state solution in which Israel lives in peace and security alongside a viable Palestinian state.” The Trump administration had rescinded the Obama administration ban in October 2020; the Biden administration quickly put the ban back into place shortly after President Joe Biden was sworn into office, but didn’t implement the ban until recently, per Axios. The policy now mirrors the European Union’s policy on the matter, according to Jewish News Syndicate (JNS).
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen criticized the ban’s reinstatement, telling reporters: “I object to the decision and think it is wrong. In similar cases in the past, the Israeli government fully reimbursed parties damaged by such decisions.” Despite the ban’s reinstatement, the State Department is not reinstating their pre-2020 policy that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) lambasted the Biden administration’s reinstatement of the Obama-era ban. “Joe Biden and Biden administration officials are pathologically obsessed with undermining Israel,” Cruz said in a statement. “Since day one of their administration they have launched campaigns against our Israeli allies that are granular, whole of government, and done in secret. 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.”
Cruz added: “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. I will do everything possible to reverse this decision and prohibit such antisemitic discrimination by the U.S. government in the future.”
RELEASE: My statement on the Biden administration instating a boycott against scientific and technological cooperation with Jews living in Judea and Samaria.https://t.co/l9QVJ7aABY pic.twitter.com/qoLBAMs4C4
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) June 25, 2023
Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton A. Klein thanked Cruz for his statement and noted that the reinstatement of the ban came just as “a research request by Ariel University in [Samaria] was turned down.” “Almost 20% of Ariel University’s students are Arabs, so this boycott targeting Jews will end up also hurting local Arabs; hurt the cause of peaceful co-existence; politicize science; and set back scientific advancements that could have benefited the U.S., the Middle East and the whole world,” Klein said in a statement, although JNS had the number of Arab students at Ariel University at closer to 10%. “It may also inspire more Palestinian Arab terrorism giving the anti-Israel extremists and terrorists an ugly victory. The ZOA has often pointed out that boycotts of Jewish businesses harm Arab workers as well as Jewish workers. Similarly, this Biden/[Secretary of State Antony] Blinken boycott aimed at Jews will do widespread harm beyond its Jewish target.”
Founded in 1982, Ariel University is located in the West Bank settlement of Ariel. Bobby Brown, the university’s senior vice president, told JNS that the university had scored three significant grants from the Trump administration shortly after they reversed the ban in 2020, although a United States diplomatic source had told the Post that no Israeli institutions in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights had received grant money after the Trump administration nixed the ban. Brown also told JNS that the university recently applied for grant money that would have provided funding for on-campus healthcare for Palestinian students. “There should be no political limitations on research that benefits society and the health, safety and wellbeing of the world’s population,” he said. “The State Department has revised this disgusting and anti-Jewish practice, which in effect reinstates BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] and racism.”
Republican Jewish Coalition National Chairman Senator Norm Coleman and CEO Matt Brooks similarly said in a statement, “By returning to the Obama-era policy, with its prejudice against Israeli control of Judea and Samaria, Biden is clumsily re-politicizing an issue that never should have been politicized to begin with. This move will negatively impact millions of Jews and Arabs who rely on access to services that provide healthcare, education, and living wages.” They called the ban “another example of Biden’s adherence to Obama’s anti-Israel Mideast policy.” “Whether it is pleading with the terrorists in Tehran for a bad nuclear deal, ceding diplomatic ground in the Middle East to China, or releasing an antisemitism policy that undermines efforts to codify a clear and comprehensive definition of antisemitism, the Biden administration continues to be a delight for far-left radicals and a deep disappointment to mainstream pro-Israel supporters,” Coleman and Brooks added.
🚨BREAKING: Biden Admin. Institutes Israel Boycott Policy
The @RJC released the following statement from National Chairman Senator @normcoleman and CEO @mbrooksrjc in response to the Biden administration’s decision to cut scientific and technological cooperation in Judea and… pic.twitter.com/upcPt5gAT7
— RJC (@RJC) June 25, 2023
By contrast, J Street said in a statement that they “strongly” support the Biden administration’s reinstatement of the ban, arguing that “Prime Minister Netanyahu has himself agreed to cooperation agreements with other countries that expressly do not apply to the settlements. There is no reason why a different standard should apply to Israel’s greatest ally, requiring US taxpayers to fund projects in illegal settlements. Accusations that declining to finance such settlement projects is somehow antisemitic are not only made in plainly bad faith, but are insulting to those who have suffered from the very real evil of antisemitism.” They added that “clarifying and enforcing this position is particularly important given the current Netanyahu government’s all-out effort to expand settlements, annex territory and deepen occupation throughout the West Bank, entrenching the one-state nightmare that is destructive for both Israelis and Palestinians. The government’s moves not only violate commitments to the United States and the rule of law, but take a sledgehammer to the shared democratic values and aspirations of the US-Israel relationship.”
J Street said that they support “US funding for joint US-Israel scientific cooperation – and believes it is crucial that such funding go to research conducted in Israel and not in illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory” and lobbied for the Biden administration to “revoke the ‘Pompeo Doctrine,’ which stated that the US does not consider settlements to be illegal under international law; and restore the bipartisan customs guidance on accurate labeling of West Bank goods.”
J Street strongly welcomes the Biden Administration’s decision to restore a longstanding bipartisan geographic restriction on American funding for US-Israel scientific cooperation projects.https://t.co/2Hwbrm2Pml pic.twitter.com/KTUJRd9u1p
— J Street (@jstreetdotorg) June 26, 2023
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