Since President Donald Trump's election in 2016, the U.S. has consistently made decisions that support Israel despite the opposition of Palestinians, other U.S. allies, and the United Nations. Now, on the heels of Jared Kushner's failed peace plan, the U.N. has released a "blacklist" of companies that interact with Israeli settlements.
After three years of work, the U.N. has released a database of 112 companies it says are doing business in occupied Palestinian territories. A majority of the companies on the list are Israeli, including many of Israel's main banks. The list also includes some well-known international companies including Motorola Solutions
The list has been met with two very different responses. Pro-Palestinian groups and the the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement celebrated the release. BDS has worked across the globe to encourage consumers not to purchase any goods made in Israeli settlements. This list will undoubtedly aid that effort.
Pro-Israel groups, on the other hand, are incensed. Less than a week after the U.N. released their list, settler groups released a "blacklist" of their own which included nearly 15,000 companies that do business with the U.N.
"The goal is to let the United Nations know that the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria won't take their boycott efforts rolling over," says David Sidman, English spokesman for Otzmah Yehudit (Jewish Power) party. Judea and Samaria are the names given to the settlement areas in the Bible and are becoming more popular.
Pro-Israel officials in the U.S. have also spoken out against the list. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, "its publication only confirms the unrelenting anti-Israel bias so prevalent at the U.N." Pompeo is an outspoken Evangelical Christian who believes in the Jews' Biblical right to the land.
Pro-Israel policy has become the norm under the Trump Administration, and there are many reasons for that. First, Trump has a close relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel (though there are some signs that the relationship is weakening) and they have both been under investigation by their respective governments. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner have both worked to further Israeli interests in the U.S. from inside the government, as well.
Another reason for Trump's support of Israel is the Biblical edict alluded to above that says that the return of Jewish people to the chosen land will herald the second coming of Christ. This is a belief held by many Evangelical Christians who make up a large portion of Trump's base and have a massive voice in American politics.
Trump's first major pro-Israel decision was moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, something he called "a long-overdue step to advance the peace process and to work towards a lasting agreement." This decision flew in the face of decades of official U.S. policy to not appear biased towards Israel. After Trump moved the Embassy, Palestinians had cause to distrust the U.S., and it made serious peace talks between the two countries nearly impossible.
"If you don't have Palestinian involvement, you don't have a peace process. It's as simple as that," Khaled Elgindy, a fellow with the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, told Vox after the move. "I don't see how a Palestinian leader can engage with this administration on the peace process" with the Embassy moved to Jerusalem.
Later that year, the Trump Administration shut down the offices of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Washington D.C.. The PLO office served as a sort of embassy for Palestine, but the U.S. has never recognized a Palestinian state.
At the beginning of 2019, the U.S. cut off all aid to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, a total of more than $60 million annually. This came after a law came into effect allowing the U.S. to sue governments who received aid if they became complicit in "acts of war". Palestinians requested the aid be cut off so that they wouldn't be taken to court. The U.S. had already cut hundreds of millions of dollars of aid the year before.
The Administration's next major and shockingly pro-Israel decision was announcing that they had determined that Israel's West Bank settlements don't violate international law. Trump made this decision at the urging of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
"Calling the establishment of civilian settlements inconsistent with international law has not advanced the cause of peace," Pompeo told reporters. "The hard truth is that there will never be a judicial resolution to the conflict, and arguments about who is right and who is wrong as a matter of international law will not bring peace."
Again, this declaration reversed decades of U.S. foreign policy. Settlements are Israel occupied areas on lands claimed by the Palestinians and are widely considered illegal. The Geneva Convention states that an "Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies." The U.N. declared settlements "a flagrant violation under international law" during Obama's tenure in office. Then-Secretary of State John F. Kerry, said, "the proliferation of settlement outposts... [is] illegal under Israel's own laws."
The choice to acknowledge settlements came as Netanyahu was facing corruption charges and former army chief Benny Gantz who was attempting to form a new government without Netanyahu.
"Israel is deeply grateful to President Trump, Secretary Pompeo and the entire U.S. administration for their steadfast position supporting truth and justice," Netanyahu said in a statement.
On January 28, the Trump Administration released the long awaited Middle East Peace Plan created by Jared Kushner. The plan was widely considered biased towards Israel and was immediately rejected by Palestinians.
The plan allows Israel to immediately begin annexing all of its West Bank settlements and sets the possibility of a limited Palestinian state in the future. The plan did not address Palestinian refugees that have been displaced or the Palestinians' claim to East Jerusalem. The plan was also released despite the Trump Administration seeking no input from the Palestinians for the last two years.
Trump called the agreement a "historic opportunity for the Palestinians to finally achieve an independent state. This could be the last opportunity they will ever have."
