WASHINGTON, Saturday, September 9, 2023 (WAFA) - A group of US Democratic senators sent a letter to Secretary of State Tony Blinken on Friday asking him not to move forward with admitting Israel into the Visa Waiver Program, stating that Israel is not on track to come into compliance before the September 30, 2023 deadline.
In the letter sent to Blinken, the senators wrote that they still have "serious concerns" about admitting Israel into the program.
The senators said that according to the MOU, Israel will only have to fully implement one system for all U.S. citizen travelers by May 1, 2024, well beyond the September 30, 2023, deadline.
If Israel cannot fully comply with the reciprocity requirements of the Visa waiver program by the Sept. 30 deadline, "it can spend the following twelve months coming into full compliance," they wrote.
"There is no provision in the law that provides that a visa waiver country can discriminate against certain groups of U.S. citizens for the first seven months of the program simply because a country claims they will treat all U.S. citizens equally for the last five months of the fiscal year," the senators said.
"It would be a violation of law to rush to admit a country that does not meet the key requirement of the program in one year simply because it may not be able to comply with a different requirement the following year."
The senators said that according to reports they received, Palestinian Americans who reside in the West Bank can't drive their cars into Israel and some Palestinian Americans were not allowed to rent cars at Ben Gurion airport after landing in Israel.
"If the U.S. were to reciprocate, it would mean that certain groups of Israelis like, for example, those living in settlements on the West Bank, would not be permitted to rent cars upon arrival in the United States, or would be otherwise given different treatment," the senators argued.
While we very much hope that Israel will meet all the requirements at some future date, its entry into the program cannot come at the expense of the 'Blue is Blue' principle and the requirement of reciprocity for all U.S. citizens," they wrote.
T.R.
