Sen. Bernie Sanders was among a number of critics decrying the Monday announcement by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the U.S. would no longer consider Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank illegal, a break with longstanding precedent that could ireversibly damage the two-state solution and peace process.
Sanders, a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, said in a tweet that it was clear the settlements are illegal and suggested that President Donald Trump was pushing the issue due to pressure from his right-wing supporters.
“Once again, Mr. Trump is isolating the United States and undermining diplomacy by pandering to his extremist base,” tweeted Sanders.
Pompeo’s announcement was the latest attack on Palestinians from the White House, which has allied itself strongly with Israel and that country’s extremist right-wing Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu. In June, as Common Dreams reported, audio leaked of Pompeo admitting the administration’s peace plans had little chance of passage due to the way they treated the Palestinians.
Brooklyn-based organizer Linda Sarsour, a Sanders surrogate, expressed her anger in a tweet.
“Not only do Trump and his administration believe they’re above the law of THIS LAND, they believe they are above international law by announcing that the ‘U.S.’ (cause they don’t speak for me) doesn’t see illegal settlements in Palestine as ‘inconsistent with international law,'” said Sarsour.
The enthusiasm from Pompeo over Monday’s change in policy, opined Palestinian leader Hanan Ashrawi, is likely based in his theocratic Christianity.
“Another blow to international law, justice, and peace by a Biblical absolutist waiting for the ‘rapture,'” tweeted Ashrawi.
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