After finding that prejudice against Arab Americans has decreased, the United States said on Wednesday that it would begin giving visa-free travel to Israelis, fulfilling a major demand of its ally. However, several politicians and activists disagreed with this judgment.
Israelis won’t need visas for visits to the world’s biggest economy lasting 90 days or less by the end of November, putting them on par with residents of the majority of Western countries. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “We have been working on this for years, nearly a decade. In order to further improve connections between the two peoples, he stated, “I would like to convey our gratitude to US President Joe Biden for his support of the effort.
After Israel pledged in July to take a number of actions to abide by US requests to treat all US passport holders equally — without discriminating against Americans who are of Palestinian or other Arab descent or who are Muslim — the Biden administration made the decision.
The elimination of travel visas is “a critical step forward in our strategic partnership with Israel that will further strengthen longstanding people-to-people engagement, economic cooperation, and security coordination,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement.
Additionally, he claimed that US citizens residing in or traveling to the Palestinian territories will have more “freedom of movement” as a result of the initiatives. The decision, according to a US official who briefed reporters, was the consequence of advancement rather than a “favor” to Israel. The US president has regularly attacked Netanyahu’s hard-right administration, but Biden is also making more of an effort to collaborate with him in order to find a historic peace agreement with Saudi Arabia.
The US move “appears to be a reward” for allowing Palestinian Americans to enter Israel, according to Ahmed Majdalani, the Palestinian minister of social affairs. He told AFP that it “also confirms that America always stands by Israel.” Before a Saturday certification deadline, more than a dozen senators from Biden’s own Democratic Party had encouraged Blinken to delay and push for more significant reform.
According to a joint statement by Democratic lawmakers led by Senator Chris Van Hollen, “adherence to this important American tenet of reciprocity and equal treatment of all US citizens is critical to the integrity of the visa waiver program, and we are deeply concerned with the administration’s decision to move forward in violation of that principle.”
Enough advancement?
Most Americans do not now need visas to enter Israel. However, prior to the July deal, Palestinian Americans intending to enter the West Bank had to do so through the Allenby Bridge with Jordan and were not permitted via Ben Gurion Airport, which is close to Tel Aviv and serves as Israel’s principal international entry point.
More action, according to the Democratic legislators, is required since US individuals with Palestinian identity cards are still unable to hire automobiles at Ben Gurion Airport and pass through Israeli checkpoints that forbid Palestinians.
Israeli participation in the visa waiver program, according to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, “would be an endorsement of discrimination against Palestinian and Arab Americans.” The group filed a lawsuit to stop it.
Israelis should be able to travel more easily, but J Street, a progressive pro-Israel organization that regularly criticizes Netanyahu, said it was obvious that US criteria “are being bent and adjusted to accommodate Israel in a way that they have not been for other countries.”
However, a different US source said that Israel complied with expectations by maintaining the percentage of American citizens who tried to enter as non-immigrants at 2.27 percent in the most recent fiscal year, which was below the objective of three percent.
US authorities said that if there is a relapse, they may revoke the status of visa waiver. Student Daniela Stein in Tel Aviv said that while she has a US visa, she may now travel quickly with friends and relatives who do not.
America is a wonderful destination that many people have not yet been, so it opens up chances for them, she added. “I know people who would like to fly and see the world, so it opens up for them.”
Almost all Western nationalities, with the exception of those from Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Romania, are permitted access into the United States without a visa. People from high-income Asian societies like Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and Brunei are among the other benefits.