Palestine accuses US' Pompeo of 'anti-Semitism'

RAMALLAH

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday accused U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of "anti-Semitism".

In a statement, the ministry decried Pompeo's usage of the Jewish term "Judea and Samaria" in describing the West Bank and his support for Jewish settlement building in the occupied territory.

"Denial of the Palestinian right to this land is anti-Semitism itself," the ministry said.

Last month, Pompeo said Israeli settlements in the West Bank will no longer be viewed as illegal "per se".

International law views both the West Bank and East Jerusalem as occupied territories and considers all Israeli settlement building activity there as illegal.

That is largely based on the Fourth Geneva Convention, which, in 1949, stipulated that an occupying power cannot transfer its civilian population to territories under its control.

* Bassel Barakat contributed to this report from Ankara