WASHINGTON, DC, Americans for Peace Now Thursday urged the US Administration to ensure that joint research initiatives with Israel do not extend to West Bank colonial settlements.
While APN “cautiously” welcomed in a press statement launching the Joint US-Israel Strategic High-Level Dialogue on Technology, it called the US administration to ensure that research initiative is not extended to the colonial settlements.
“We urge the Biden administration to ensure that this partnership is not extended to institutions or companies based in Israeli West Bank Settlements. The West Bank is under Israeli military occupation. It is not a part of sovereign Israel and should not be treated as such,” the statement read.
APN voiced its concerns over the Biden Administration’s failure to restore geographical restrictions in scientific cooperation agreements, so as not to include institutions in West Bank colonial settlements.
In late October 2020, former US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel amended a series of scientific cooperation agreements on Wednesday to include Israeli institutions in the West Bank.
Official from both sides at the time signed protocols amending the Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation, the Binational Science Foundation, and Binational Agricultural Research and Development Foundation at a ceremony in the colonial settlement of Ariel.
“Additionally, we are deeply concerned that the Biden administration has allowed for the Trump administrations’ 2020 removal of the geographic restrictions on other cooperative efforts like the Binational Research Foundations between the US and Israel (BIRD, BARD and BSF) to remain in effect,” APN added.
“While the US and Israel work to strengthen their technological cooperation and research ties, doing so in any context that lends legitimacy to Israeli settlements further entrenches the occupation and undermines prospects for peace. It is vital that the Biden administration restores the territorial restrictions to the Binational Research Foundations and upholds this distinction in any future technology initiatives.”
Source: Palestine News & Info Agency