Pompeo: Israel has Biblical claim to the land so it can't be an occupier

Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has defended Israel’s policies in the West Bank saying Jews have a biblical claim to the land and therefore are not occupying it.

“[Israel] is not an occupying nation. As an evangelical Christian, I am convinced by my reading of the Bible that 3,000 years on now, in spite of the denial of so many, [this land] is the rightful homeland of the Jewish people,” he said.

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Speaking to the One Decision podcast about Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Pompeo said he was “a known terrorist who’s killed lots and lots of people, including Americans.

“During his term in office as a member of the administration of US President Donald Trump, Washington moved away from the two-state solution and sided with Israel in a more obvious manner. It also recognised Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel and moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied city. It also recognised Israel’s sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan HeightsIt also softened its stance on illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, abandoning its four-decade position that the settlements were “inconsistent with international law”.

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