GOLAN HEIGHTS: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday became the first American top diplomat to visit the Israel-occupied Golan Heights after an unprecedented stop in a West Bank Jewish settlement that infuriated Palestinians.
The envoy of US President Donald Trump, who has made a staunchly pro-Israel stance a hallmark of his turbulent term in power, also called the anti-Israel BDS boycott movement a "cancer" that Washington would designate as anti-Semitic.
Under heavy security and alongside Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi aboard a Blackhawk helicopter, Pompeo visited the disputed Golan Heights, a strategic territory the Jewish state seized from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War.
"You can't stand here and stare out at what's across the border and deny the central thing that President Donald Trump recognised... This is a part of Israel," Pompeo said.
Last year, Trump's administration controversially recognised Israeli sovereignty in the Golan, and Pompeo on Thursday condemned what he described as calls from "the salons in Europe and in the elite institutions in America" for Israel to return the Golan to Syria. "Imagine with (Syrian President Bashar) al-Assad in control of this place, the risk of the harm to the West and to Israel," Pompeo said.
Pompeo earlier announced a new pro-Israel policy, stating that Washington would designate as "anti-Semitic" the BDS or Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, which calls for a wide-ranging embargo against Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians.
"We will immediately take steps to identify organisations that engage in hateful BDS conduct and withdraw US government support for such groups," Pompeo said after meeting close ally Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"We want to stand with all other nations that recognise the BDS movement for the cancer that it is."
Israel sees BDS as a strategic threat and has long accused it of anti-Semitism, and a law passed in 2017 allows it to ban foreigners with links to the movement.
Activists strongly deny the charge, comparing the embargo to the economic isolation that helped bring down apartheid in South Africa.
Condemning Pompeo's announcement, Human Rights Watch said "the Trump administration has no business trying to tar groups because they back boycotts," which it said had been used to advance social justice throughout American history.
Amnesty International called BDS a "form of non-violent advocacy and of free expression that must be protected".
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