Israel-United States scientific cooperation extended to West Bank settlements

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Ambassador David Friedman signing a scientific cooperation agreement in the Ariel settlement, October 28, 2020. Emil Salman / Pool via AP

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The American ambassador to Israel on Wednesday October 28 signed a document extending American scientific cooperation to all Israeli establishments.

Ariel University, located in a colony, will therefore be able to benefit from American funds. 

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With our correspondent in Jerusalem,

Guilhem Delteil

Under international law, the territories conquered by Israel in 1967 the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights are considered occupied.

In their cooperation, Israel's partners were therefore careful not to finance Israeli projects beyond the country's internationally recognized borders.

But on Wednesday, the United States "

 removed geographic restrictions 

" to their scientific cooperation with Israel, the American embassy said in a statement.

Ambassador David Friedman deemed it an "

 anachronism 

", recalling that the Trump administration no longer considers colonization to be contrary to international law.

A symbolic scope

Concretely, the agreement has a rather limited scope.

There is only one Israeli university in the settlements, that of Ariel.

And Israel's main scientific partner is the European Union with which it maintains a policy of non-contact with this establishment.

But the importance of the agreement is above all symbolic and the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had made the trip to Ariel for the occasion.

"

 We are determined to build our lives, our ancestral homeland and never to be uprooted from here again, 

" he said.

יחד עם שגריר ארה"ב בישראל, דוד פרידמן, חתמנו ​​היום לראשונה על הרחבת החלת הסכם שיתוף הפעולה המדעי בין ישראל לארה"ב על אזור יהודה ושומרון ורמת הגולן.



זה שינוי אדיר - ניצחון על כל הארגונים והמדינות שמחרימים את יהודה ושומרון.

אנחנו לא נפסיק לפעול כדי שהאזור הזה ישגשג ויפרח!

pic.twitter.com/HaeYFd4Zgz

  Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) October 28, 2020

Hanane Ashraoui, one of the leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization, denounces "

 a clear recognition of the Israeli annexation of the Palestinian territories

 " and accuses the Trump administration

of

active involvement 

" in "

 war crimes Israelis 

”.

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