The United States government has been sued by several rights and civil liberties groups under pretensions of lack of transparency on Israel’s entry into the visa waiver program.
In October last year, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request submitted by the law firm Van Der Hout LLP sought information from several federal agencies on Israel’s memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the US, which entered the US’s visa waiver initiative, VisaGuide.World reports.
In 2023, the US government shirked its duty by entering into an undisclosed Memorandum of Understanding permitting Israel to create and impose a two-tiered discriminatory system: one for Palestinian Americans, and another for everyone else.
Sinodis said that their community members and the American public have an unequivocal right to know the terms of that Memorandum of Understanding, and this lawsuit will make sure that their right is fulfilled.
According to a report from Middle East Eye, the lawsuit was filed with the help of several groups, also taking into account the National Immigration Project, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and Muslim Advocates.
This administration entered into an MoU with the Government of Israel that discriminates against Palestinian Americans. It is yet another example of the Biden administration’s carte blanche approach to Israel’s flagrant violations of the law that long predated Israel’s assault on Gaza.
Besides, the filing also emphasised the double standard between how the United States treats citizens of Israel versus those from Palestine.
A large number of Americans are trying to bring their family members out of the enclave; however, their relatives don’t meet the criteria for evacuation.
The gatekeeper for Americans is the United States government; it’s the State Department. There’s no attention given to case-by-case situations that really do need some flexibility on the part of the State Department, just from a human perspective. Again, the people making the asks are US citizens.
In October this year, it was reported that Israelis would be eligible to apply for authorisation to travel to the US through the US Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) following Israel’s admission into the US Visa Waiver Program (VWP).
In November last year, authorities in the US warned that Israel is violating the visa waiver program by not allowing entry into the country of Palestinian Americans living in the occupied West Bank since October 7.