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The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, is visiting on Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank in the latest breach with decades of US policy in the Middle East.
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This is the first such visit to the area by a secretary of state.
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Palestinian leaders have called it a provocation.
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There have already bean protests.
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We have some live pictures coming to us right now off the Sagat Jewish settlement.
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This is where we are expecting Mike Pompeo at any moment.
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He is touring or is expected to tour an Israeli winery.
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Now this is built on land that Palestinian families say was stolen from them.
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Last year, the winery released a red wine.
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They named it the Pompeo Red as a show of gratitude and appreciation for his declaration that the US would break away from international consensus and no longer argue that settlements are illegal.
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We're keeping a close eye on these live pictures for you, but let's just bring you update with what Mr Pompeo head to stay and another first.
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We're also expecting he will visit the Israeli occupied Golan Heights heavy.
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Listen, you know, today I'll get a chance to visit the Golan Heights the simple recognition of this is part of Israel.
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Uh, two was a decision President Trump made that is historically important and simply a recognition of the reality.
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Uh, and then you talked about the fact that for a long time the State Department took the wrong view of settlements.
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It took a view that didn't recognize the history of this special place.
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And instead, now, today, the United States Department of State stands strongly to the recognition that settlements could be done in a way that air lawful and appropriate and proper.
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They are full of praise for each other, Mike Pompeo and Benjamin Netanyahu there.
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So let's take you straight to Jerusalem and bring you the thoughts of our correspondent there.
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Your land, your land.
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Why is Mike Pompeo there in the closing days?
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Really off the Trump administration?
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Well, I think part of it is that he is doubling down on some of those comments that he has made previously, particularly in relation to settlements and in relation to the recognition, Um, that the Golan Heights has seen as part of Israel proper by this White House.
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That could make it more difficult for Joe Biden to reverse some of the policies that have been advanced by the Trump administration.
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This also looks very much like a farewell trip around the Middle East by the US secretary of state.
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It was the warmest off meetings that he held with the Israeli prime minister earlier, Mr Netanyahu, saying that Mike Pompeo had taken the alliance between Israel and the United States Thio to a new level on bond.
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Really, he may well be thinking of his own political future here because thes two stops that he's made in the occupied West Bank in particular um, look very much like they will appeal Thio his evangelical Christian support base.
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We know that he went first of all, um, to the baptism site in the River Jordan.
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Um, that's where many Christians believe that John the Baptist baptized Jesus on this is in a new area also, which Palestinians consider should be part off their future hoped for state.
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He then went to see got this settlement, which is just outside of Ramallah.
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That's, of course, the seat of the Palestinian Authority.
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So that was really seen as an extra provocation by the Palestinian leadership going to the winery.
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There which recognized him, um, as being a changing policy on U.
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S.
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Policy on settlements quite dramatically.
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This is a winery that has tried repeatedly with its US owners, actually to try to get worldwide recognition for its wines toe have made in Israel.
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Put on the label instead of how you court deemed it should be labeled as from an Israeli settlement.
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You'll and he is the first U.
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S.
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Secretary of state to officially visit a settlement in the occupied territory.
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So there is outrage amongst the Palestinians.
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I've been speaking Thio Mustafa Barghouti on.
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He is a member of the P.
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L o leader of the Palestinian National Initiative And this is what he told me.
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Well, it seems that Mr Pompeo does not lose any opportunity toe make himself and his administration participant in a war crime, the crime off, annexing occupied territories, the crime off building illegal settlements on occupied territories.
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These visits are unacceptable.
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They are provocative whether the one toe good settlement in the heart of the West Bank, who should become part of the Palestinian future state or to the Golan Heights, which is Syrian territory that is occupied.
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And that was illegally annexed by Israel.
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In my opinion, Pompeo and Trump running a very provocative policy and they are trying to create facts.
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Difficult facts for Mr Biden and his administration.
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They're trying toe create as much as possible what they think could become a reversible facts on the ground that would destroy the potential and possibility off two state solution and peace in this region.
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Mustafa Barghouti.
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There you learned.
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What are the expectations now from both the Israelis and the Palestinians off the Biden administration once it gets underway?
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Well, there is a general expectation that ah, President Biden will return to a more traditional approach thio this part off the Middle East.
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It is not expected, crucially, that he will move the US Embassy back from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, but that perhaps you will put Jerusalem back on the negotiations table between Israel and the Palestinians when it comes to the peace process that he will open up a consulate for the Palestinians in the eastern part of the city.
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He could also reopen the Palestinian representative office in Washington.
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On did he can indeed change policies, particularly on things like settlements.
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Hey could say once again that settlements are considered to be illegal under international law.
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That's something that most countries agree with, although Israel disputes it.
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Ulan Thanks for joining us from Jerusalem.
