According to a report by Israeli journalist Barak Ravid on the Walla website, the decision to cancel the Trump Administration's policy change was made at the US State Department two years ago, but it was only recently necessary to act upon the policy in practice because of a request submitted to one of the funds for a grant for a scientific project beyond the so-called 'Green Line.'
The request for a grant was submitted by researchers from Ariel University. According to the report, senior American officials said that Israel received an update on the policy change even before the government's latest decisions on settlement expansion, which was made last week following the terrorist shooting attack in Binyamin in which four civilians were murdered.
A senior official at the State Department told Walla: "The directive that was circulated made it clear that participation in joint projects with Israel in the fields of science and technology in areas that came under its control after June 5, 1967 and whose future should be determined through negotiations on a permanent settlement, is not consistent with American policy."
In October 2020 the US and Israel announced that they would remove the geographic restrictions that were previously imposed on three Israeli-American foundations in the field of research and development and scientific cooperation and prevented them from financing projects in Judea and Samaria.
Netanyahu and the US ambassador to Israel at the time, David Friedman, signed the new agreement in a ceremony held at Ariel University.
