Pompeo: Label Settlement Goods as ‘Made in Israel’

Goods produced in Israeli-controlled areas of the West Bank will be required to be labeled as “Israel,” “Product of Israel” or “Made in Israel” when exported to the United States, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement issued on Thursday. Goods from areas overseen by the Palestinian Authority will have to be labeled as products of the West Bank, while goods produced in the Gaza Strip will be marked as products of Gaza, according to the statement. “Under the new approach, we will no longer accept ‘West Bank/Gaza’ or similar markings in recognition that Gaza and the West Bank are politically and administratively separate and should be treated accordingly,” the statement said. The announcement came the same day that Pompeo, in Israel as part of a seven-country farewell trip, made a controversial visit to a winery in the West Bank settlement of Psagot. Also on Thursday, during a news conference in Jerusalem, Pompeo announced that the State Department would from now on regard the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel as being “anti-Semitic,” saying it will “immediately take steps to identify organizations that engage in hateful BDS conduct, and withdraw US government support for such groups. The time is right.”