An official brief has informed that Palestinian-Americans’ freedom of travel in Israel might determine the proposed US visa exemptions for Israelis, as the country has been under works to achieve visa-free travel to the US for some years now.
According to the local media, Israel has satisfied some conditions for the US Visa Waiver Program (VWP), to which it is expected to be admitted by October, while reciprocal access for Palestinian-Americans at Israel’s borders and West Bank is required to be demonstrated further on, VisaGuide.World reports.
This means that Israel will have to permit Palestinian Americans freedom of travel in the country next month, as a requirement set by the process of Israel joining the US Visa Waiver Program.
Eli Cohen, the Israeli Foreign Minister, said that a pilot program to keep the candidacy for VWP on track is expected to be launched in the middle of July, but no more comments were made on the matter.
The pilot program will last between 30 to 45 days, during which US delegations will closely monitor Palestanian-American travel through Ben-Gurion Airport and across West Bank checkpoints.
“If you’re a Palestinian-American living in Ramallah, this means you can spend up to 90 days in Tel Aviv (on an Israeli entry visa),” a Foreign Ministry spokesperson, who declined to be identified by name or nationality, told Reuters.
According to an estimate, the Arab American Institute Foundation reveals that the number of Palestinian-descended Americans stands at 122,500 and 220,000. Around 45,000 to 60,000 of them live in West Bank, while the Islamist Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip will be exempted from the pilot program.
Previously, almost 64 US senators have urged the Biden administration to complete its work for admitting Israeli nationals to the visa program by September 30. The senators have sent a letter to the Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Security Secretary Alejandro Majorkas, demanding that Israel be included in the Visa Waiver Program.
The Middle Eastern country has previously met two of the requirements for entry into the program, including the visa refusal rate, which dropped below the three-percent level, while the other requirement was related to laws and applied measures that enable intelligence-sharing among the member nations.
However, a number of democrats have joined Arab Americans and other groups to protest about the Palestanian-Americans’ rights to visit Israel. The latter requires special permits for this group, and they often are subject to unequal treatment at Israel’s borders.