Democratic senators: Obama ‘mischaracterized’ trade bill over settlements
After president signs law defending Israel from BDS, but vows not to enforce settlements clauses, six Dems urge him to implement it ‘as intended’
WASHINGTON — Six Democratic senators said President Barack Obama “mischaracterized” language in a recent trade bill that requires US non-cooperation with and regular reporting on entities that engage in Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) efforts against Israel.
Obama signed the wide-ranging bill Wednesday, but said in a statement he will not apply portions of the bill that extend anti-BDS protections to West Bank settlements, reiterating his position that “conflating Israel and ‘Israeli-controlled territories’ [is] contrary to longstanding bipartisan United States policy.”
Obama further said that “consistent with longstanding constitutional practice,” his administration would negotiate with other countries under the law “in a manner that does not interfere with my constitutional authority to conduct diplomacy,” language used in signing statements to signal that a president will not apply a part of a law that does not comport with US foreign policy.
Responding to the president’s statement, the group of Democratic senators said that, despite the bill’s language lumping together Israel proper with the territories, it is does not make a “US policy statement about Israeli settlements” and they urged the administration to “implement these provisions as enacted and intended.”
Those provisions “are not about Israeli settlements” but “discouraging politically-motivated commercial actions aimed at delegitimizing Israel and pressuring Israel into unilateral concessions outside the bounds of direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations,” the six said in statement. It was signed by Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)
The senators added that US policy aimed at opposing BDS measures is also reflected in the US-Israel Free Trade Agreement, which “does not distinguish tariff treatment among products based on whether they were produced in Israeli territories.”
