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‘Israel is not an occupying force in Judea, Samaria’, says Pompeo

The State of Israel “is a democracy where faiths can be practiced from all of the Abrahamic traditions,” the former U.S. secretary of state said. 

By World Israel News Staff

Former U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo toured various areas in Judea and Samaria on Sunday, in a special visit accompanied by Opposition Leader and former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“This is the rightful homeland for the people of Israel, Judea and Samaria,” Pompeo said during a visit to the Psagot Winery, located just north of Jerusalem – the same place where last November he announced the dramatic shift in U.S. policy that saw Israeli goods produced in Judea and Samaria labled as “Made in Israel” rather than “made in the West Bank.”

“During my first trip here, there were protesters not too far from where we were standing. What they were protesting was a falsehood. What they were protesting is a fantasy. Because we know the reality of this place. We know it is Israel,” he said, noting throughout his speech the efforts it took to tell “the world the truth.”

“We recognized that this is not an occupying nation, this is not an apartheid country,” he said. “It is a democracy where faiths can be practiced from all of the Abrahamic traditions.”

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Pompeo described his time working under the Trump administration and alongside former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who he described as a “bulldozer for the truth.”

“I will never forget the meetings,” he said, discussing the decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. “The meetings that said there will be war … and yet President Trump was bold, he was prepared, and we did the work.”

Pompeo became the first U.S. Secretary of State to visit Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria.

Speaking after Pompeo, Netanyahu discussed what he described as the “basic connection, unequalled anywhere in the history of other nations,” between the Jewish people and Judea and Samaria. He also talked about the shift that has taken place over the last decade toward a “false narrative” supported “by dent of Arab propaganda” and by the “constant repetition of lies.”