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+--- Thread: US Visa Waiver Program: Why Arab Americans angered by Israel’s admission (/Thread-US-Visa-Waiver-Program-Why-Arab-Americans-angered-by-Israel%E2%80%99s-admission)
US Visa Waiver Program: Why Arab Americans angered by Israel’s admission - Levin - 29-09-2023
By Ali Harb
Published On 28 Sep 2023
28 Sep 2023
Washington, DC – The Biden administration’s decision to allow Israelis to travel visa-free to the United States has drawn the ire of Arab Americans who say the move represents tacit approval of Israeli discrimination against US Palestinian and Arab travellers.
The US admitted Israel on Wednesday into the selective Visa Waiver Program (VWP), hailing the relationship between the two top allies.
The VWP requires admitted nations to abide by what’s known as “reciprocity”. This means that countries whose nationals are allowed to travel to the US without visas must, in turn, not discriminate or deny entry to American citizens without credible cause.
In this case, however, Palestinian rights supporters say the US will allow Israel’s citizens to enter the country without a visa while the Israeli government detains, questions and turns back American travellers.
Activists argued that by adding Israel to the VWP, the US was overlooking well-documented Israeli discrimination against Americans of Arab and Palestinian descent, as well as supporters of Palestinian human rights more broadly.
For example, Israel did not allow US Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib to visit the country and the occupied Palestinian territories in 2019, citing “their boycott activities against Israel”.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/28/us-visa-waiver-program-why-arab-americans-angered-by-israels-admission?sf182232716=1