U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly penned a recent letter to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, recommending that Israel be admitted to the U.S. Visa Waiver Program.
The letter is “largely a technical procedure” but is required before Mayorkas makes the final decision, per Axios. The deadline for the U.S. decision is Sept. 30, after which Israel would have to apply again.
The program allows visitors from other countries to come to the United States for 90 days without a visa.
“Israeli officials told Axios that the U.S. unofficially notified them on the sidelines of President [Joe] Biden’s meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week that the administration is going to announce Israel’s entry into the program within days,” it reported.
During the U.S. State Department’s press briefing on Tuesday, a reporter asked how Washington is evaluating reports about travel into Israel from Palestinian-Americans, which has been a sticking point in the past for Israeli entry into the program.
“Along with the Department of Homeland Security, we have had a monitoring mechanism in place since two months ago, when we launched this program to monitor conditions, to ensure that Palestinian Americans are able to travel freely, to make sure that they are not discriminated against,” said Matthew Miller, the department’s spokesman.
“That includes talking to people who have traveled in and out of Israel, and understanding their experience. And we take all that data and look at it, and it’s part of the determination by the secretary and ultimately the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security,” he added. “We look at all that data in making a determination whether Israel is eligible for entry into the program.”
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee has filed a lawsuit claiming that Israel has not met the program prerequisites.
“Admitting Israel into the Visa Waiver Program would be an endorsement of discrimination against Palestinian and Arab Americans,” stated Abed Ayoub, ADC’s national executive director.
