On Sunday morning, Reshet Bet radio reported, citing a Biden administration source, that the US will cease all its cooperation projects in the settlements.
On the eve of the Nov. 2020 presidential elections, then President Donald Trump removed the traditional ban on US government cooperation with academic institutions beyond the “green line,” such as Ariel University. For years, the US and EU countries had boycotted academic ventures in the settlements, while lavishing funds on Arab institutions, some of which harbor dangerous terrorists.
When Israel asked to be included in Horizon 2020, the EU’s research and innovation funding program that ran from 2014-2020 with a budget of nearly €80 billion, it had to commit to keeping its Horizon projects west of the green line. This, by the way, constituted taxation without representation, since Israel had to contribute its taxpayers’ money to the program to be included, effectively taking away money from the settlers from which they would not be allowed to benefit.
The new policy is a return to the Obama administration’s policy of banning US support for Israeli academic institutions in Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. It is not clear whether the Biden administration plans to withdraw its funds from the Golan and eastern Jerusalem as well after President Trump recognized them as belonging to Israel.
An official at the State Department told Reshet Bet that “this directive simply reflects the position of the United States over the years, which has been reaffirmed by this administration, according to which the status of the geographical areas that were under the Israeli administration after June 5, 1967, is a matter that requires a determination of final status.”
On March 21, 2019, President Trump tweeted that it was “time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights.” In June 2021, the Biden administration affirmed that it would continue to maintain the previous administration’s policy of recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. However, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has since “signaled openness to an eventual policy review.”
