As a Quaker organization seeking a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) strongly opposes the Trump administration’s recent decision to allow the expenditure of U.S. taxpayer funds in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The new policy, announced October 28, would reverse decades of bipartisan agreement that U.S.-Israel scientific and research cooperation could not be used for projects conducted outside Israel’s pre-1967 borders. The move has been interpreted as a “signal of U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank.”
We regret that the U.S. policy shift, occurring just days before a national election, would continue the process of creeping Israeli annexation of occupied Palestinian territory.
By sending a message of support for settlements and settlement activity, this Trump administration policy endorses violations of international law and clouds the prospects for a two-state solution. It will serve to entrench inequality, legitimize the denial of Palestinian rights, intensify human suffering, and complicate efforts to bring the two sides together.
In July FCNL joined two other Quaker organizations, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW), in expressing concern about the threatened Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank and opposing all actions that make realizing a just peace more difficult.
We regret that the U.S. policy shift, occurring just days before a national election, would continue the process of creeping Israeli annexation of occupied Palestinian territory. We call on Congress to reverse this ill-advised decision.