In return, Israel is dropping travel restrictions against Palestinian and Arab Americans.
The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it will allow Israeli travelers to come to the United States without a visa, a coveted status that was given in exchange for the Israeli government dropping long-standing travel restrictions on Palestinian Americans and other Americans of Arab and Muslim descent.Israel’s entry into the Visa Waiver Program has been a top priority for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his predecessor, Naftali Bennett.
The Biden administration had sought to end that treatment, and also viewed an agreement on visas as a test case for a much bigger effort to broker a deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel that could be a landmark moment in the geopolitics of the Middle East. In July, Israel agreed to open Ben Gurion Airport to all Americans regardless of their origin in a bid to prove it was committed to its side of the deal.
Israeli policy “often subjected U.S. citizens of Palestinian or Arab heritage or Muslim faith to significant difficulties and unequal treatment,” a U.S. official told reporters, speaking under ground rules of anonymity to discuss the new policy before its official announcement. “Since July 20, when Israel initially issued its updated travel guidance, over 100,000 U.S. citizens, including tens of thousands of Palestinian Americans, have successfully entered Israel visa-free.
Administration officials say they will continue to monitor Israeli compliance with the requirements of the program and that they can revoke it at any time if they judge Israel not to be holding its side of the bargain. They say that Israeli citizens will be able to take advantage of the visa-free program by Nov. 30.The deal has come under criticism from some inside Biden’s own Democratic Party, with 15 senators — including Majority Whip Richard J.
The Biden administration also hopes to win better treatment for Palestinians as part of ongoing three-country negotiations between Washington, Jerusalem and Riyadh that could unlock Saudi investment in Israel in exchange for a strengthened U.S. defense pact with Saudi Arabia, among other measures.
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