Pompeo says administration views international effort to divest from Israel as anti-Semitic

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday while in Israel that the Trump administration now views as anti-Semitic the international campaign – known as the BDS movement – to boycott, divest from and impose sanctions on Israel.

“We want to stand with all other nations that recognize the B.D.S. movement for the cancer that it is,” said Pompeo alongside Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Pompeo’s two-day visit to Israel is part of his official overseas trip this week in which he also worked on the administration’s continuing efforts to normalize Middle East relations, this time between, taking part in a meeting Wednesday in Israel between Netanyahu and Bahrain Foreign Minister Abdul Latif bin Rashid al-Zayani

Pompeo made the announcement about BDS as he became the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit an Israeli settlement in the West Bank.

The B.D.S. movement attempts to exert worldwide economic and political pressure on Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians. Supporters include some U.S. church groups and liberal advocacy groups, according to the New York Times.

The movement is also considered largely an effort to end Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. Critics argue the objective is the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state.