European countries that impose boycotts on Israel are ‘anti-Semitic’ and risk retaliatory sanctions from the United States, a senior Trump administration official has declared.
Speaking in Washington DC, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon criticised countries including the UK, France and Norway over measures targeting goods produced in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Dhillon, who leads the Civil Rights division at the Department of Justice, said: ‘What we call this in the United States is the BDS movement. It is anti-Semitism. And I think every country that is doing that is going to risk, while President Trump is in power, retaliatory or corresponding sanctions potentially.’
She added: ‘I think the President has said words to that effect. In the United States, there was an attempt to start trying to do this at the corporate level as well, and it’s quickly been shut down overwhelming opposition from well-meaning people in our country… But I do consider BDS, and I think most people in my government consider it to be a form of anti-Semitism, and we call it as such.’
‘I think every country that is doing that is going to risk… retaliatory or corresponding sanctions’
Dhillon’s comments mark a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s on-the-record response to measures taken by the UK and other European countries against Israeli settlements. While the policy has been publicly attacked by the US Ambassador to Israel, when President Trump was asked about Ed Miliband’s policy by reporters at the UN General Assembly last month, he did not respond. Instead, he left Andy Burnham to defend the decision.
Speaking to The Spectator and a small group of European reporters, Dhillon did not provide details of what retaliatory measures might involve.
The Assistant Attorney General also warned that the UK and Europe should adopt Trump-style ‘hard tactics’ to curb illegal migration, which she argued was contributing to anti-Semitic, anti-Christian and anti-western attacks.
Dhillon, who was confirmed by the US Senate in April last year, said: ‘It has been politically unpopular in this country to close our borders and yet I think most Americans like the result of less chaos, disruption and fear in our community. Our President is absolutely correct to stop unchecked migration from our southern border particularly because people are pouring in from all over the world and we don’t know who they are or where they’re coming from.’
Comments