will regard the Palestinian-led boycott movement as "anti-Semitic" and cut off government support for any organizations taking part in it, a step that could deny funding to Palestinian and international human rights groups.

Pompeo announced the initiative during a visit to Israel in which he is expected to make the first-ever appearance by a secretary of state in an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.

Pompeo said he would also visit the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 war.

"We will regard the global, anti-Israel BDS campaign as anti-Semitic," Pompeo said, referring to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

government support for such groups," he said, adding that all nations should "recognize the BDS movement for the cancer that it is.".

Virtually all Palestinian non-governmental organizations support the boycott movement, but under President Donald Trump the U.S.

has already cut off nearly all forms of aid to the Palestinians, part of its unprecedented support for Israel in the decades-old conflict.

Netanyahu thanked the administration for moving its embassy to contested Jerusalem, dropping its position that Israeli settlements are contrary to international law, recognizing Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights and taking a hard line against Iran.

The Palestinians want both territories to be part of their future state and view the settlements as a violation of international law and an obstacle to peace — a position endorsed by most of the international community.

Trump's Mideast plan, which overwhelmingly favored Israel and was rejected by the Palestinians, would allow Israel to annex up to a third of the West Bank, including all of its settlements there, which are home to nearly 500,000 Israelis.

"For a long time, the State Department took the wrong view of settlements," Pompeo said, but it now recognizes that "settlements can be done in a way that (is) lawful, appropriate and proper."