The United States will permit the labeling of imports from Israeli settlements as having been "Made in Israel" or "Product of Israel", Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement on Thursday as he made a historic visit to a Jewish community in Judea and Samaria.
According to a Nov. 16 statement by four Republican senators, the previous Democratic administration's guidelines were for such settlement products to be labeled as "Made in West Bank".
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Pompeo on Thursday became the first top US diplomat to visit an Israeli settlement, making a public visit to Psagot.
Pompeo also announced that the US would brand the international Palestinian-led anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement as anti-Semitic and bar any groups that participate in it from receiving government funding. It was not immediately clear which groups would be affected by the move.
"We will regard the global, anti-Israel BDS campaign as anti-Semitic," Pompeo said.
"We will immediately take steps to identify organizations that engage in hateful BDS conduct and withdraw US government support for such groups," he said, adding that all nations should "recognize the BDS movement for cancer that it is."
BDS organizers cast their movement as a non-violent way of protesting Israel's policies toward the Palestinians modeled on the campaign that helped end apartheid in South Africa. The movement has had some limited success over the years but no impact on the Israeli economy.
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