PM Netanyahu and US Ambassador will sign amended scientific cooperation reversing past US governments that ruled Israeli research projects receiving US grants could not be carried out in areas taken during the 1967 6-Day War.

By  Reuters and ILH Staff

Israel said on Tuesday the United States is effectively lifting a ban on US funding of Israeli scientific research projects conducted in Judea and Samaria and the Golan Heights.

There was no immediate Palestinian comment on the move, announced a week before the fast-approaching US presidential election Nov. 3, in which opinion polls show incumbent President Donald Trump trailing Democrat Joe Biden.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump hold up the signed document acknowledging Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, on March 25, 2019. – Photo: AMOS BEN-GERSHOM/GPO

Past scientific accords with the US government stipulated that Israeli research projects receiving US grants could not be carried out in areas that came under Israeli administration in the 1967 Six-Day War.

The Trump administration last year effectively backed Israel’s right to build Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria by abandoning a long-held US position that they were “inconsistent with international law.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman will sign amended scientific cooperation agreements at a “special ceremony” in Judea and Samaria on Wednesday, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

The revised agreements “will expand scientific cooperation between Israel and the United States to Judea and Samaria and the Golan Heights,” the Israeli statement said.

Under the Trump administration peace plan announced in January, Israel would retain control of most of its communities in Judea and Samaria.

Roadside sign in the Golan Heights to Odem and the Druze village of Majdal Shams. – Photo: IsraelandStuff/PP

In May, Trump recognized the Golan Heights as Israeli territory. He has also challenged recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the US Embassy to the holy city.

View original Israel Hayom publication at:
https://www.israelhayom.com/2020/10/28/us-will-now-fund-research-in-golan-heights-judea-and-samaria/

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