Israel has been lobbying for entry into the U.S. Visa Waiver Program (VWP) for two decades. Under the VWP participating countries are allowed to travel to the U.S. for 90 days or less without having to obtain a visa.
Israel’s chances always felt slim. Their visa applications are generally rejected at higher rate than the VWP requirement and the entire system is ostensibly based on the principle of reciprocity. In other words, countries need to allow visa-free travel to American citizens or nationals for their residents to receive the same treatment.
Israel infamously restricts travel for Palestinians and this includes Palestinian-Americans. Even the Trump administration thought Israel’s policies were too draconian to warrant a waiver. “The administration in Washington continues to be concerned about the unequal treatments given to US Muslims at entry points and checkpoints,” said a State Department spokesperson in 2017. “We regularly raise the issue of equal treatment of all US citizens at entry points to Israel with the authorities in Israel.”
However, travel dipping at the height of the pandemic meant visa rejection rates also dropped. This afforded Israel a window of opportunity and they negotiated with the U.S. on the issue for over two years. In July they launched a pilot program that allegedly loosened restrictions on Palestinian-Americans, but critics warned that major issues remained and that the country still didn’t meet the qualifications for VWP entry. For example, Palestinian-Americans in Gaza still had to obtain a permit to leave the area and Palestinian-Americans living in the West Bank still needed one to take a flight out of Israel’s airport.
“This pilot program appears to be an effort by the Biden Administration to bring Israel into the Visa Waiver Program without requiring it to end its systematic profiling and discrimination against Palestinian Americans,” Foundation for Middle East Peace President Lara Friedman told me at the time. “This effort strips the term ‘reciprocity’ of all meaning, gives a U.S. kosher stamp to foreign governments engaging in blatant racism against Americans, and demonstrates yet again that the rule of U.S.-Israel relations – regardless of which party is in the White House, and even when talking about the welfare and rights of American citizens – is zero accountability.”
Many expressed these concerns to The White House. A group of more than 30 community leaders, representing thousands of Palestinian and Arab Americans, met with Homeland Security officials. 50 community organizations sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. A group of Democratic Senators sent Blinken a letter. “We appreciate the Administration’s stated position that, in order to be eligible for the Visa Waiver Program, Israel must meet the requirements of reciprocity and equal treatment for all U.S. citizen travelers to Israel and/or the West Bank,” it read. “To date, however, we have seen no statements from the Government of Israel regarding actions or intentions to change current practices and policies that negatively impact U.S. citizens on the basis of their religion, national origin, or ethnicity, especially in the case of Palestinian-Americans or Arab Americans.”
In the end, Biden was unmoved. This week The White House announced that Israel’s inclusion was official. “Israel’s entry into the Visa Waiver Program represents a critical step forward in our strategic partnership with Israel that will further strengthen long-standing people-to-people engagement, economic cooperation, and security coordination between our two countries,” said Blinken. “This important achievement will enhance freedom of movement for U.S. citizens, including those living in the Palestinian Territories or traveling to and from them.”
“In the last two years, AJP Action and many other organizations have met with the Department of Homeland Security, in which they would continuously reaffirm how the requirements of the visa waiver program are strict and cannot be bent, confirming that Israel had yet to meet full reciprocity,” AJP Action Advocacy Director Ayah Ziyadeh told me. “Reciprocity is the cornerstone of entry into the VWP. Admitting Israel into the program after only a month-and-a-half-long trial after decades of discrimination, occupation, and apartheid is irresponsible. The trial itself proved that Israel has yet to meet reciprocity with its continued discrimination against Palestinian Americans. This is another reminder that the United States would rather continue to compromise our national security and quote-un-quote principles to please a government (Israel) that has shown time and time again that it does not respect the U.S. nor is it afraid to break international law.”
“We learned from the civil rights movement the fallacy of ‘separate but equal.’ Today we are obligated to reject Israel’s inclusion into the Visa Waiver Program because separate is never equal,” said US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) Executive Director Ahmad Abuznaid in a statement. “Palestinian Americans’ tax dollars are just as green, our passports are just as blue, and our rights are just as precious as any other American.”
In addition to the obvious issue of discrimination, Biden’s move also delivers a massive PR win to a Netanyahu government that’s faced widespread protest at home and abroad. The mainstream media often frames Biden’s relationship with the Israeli Prime Minister as frayed, but what else could he ask for? A Democratic administration has granted him entry into the VWP and is working to finalize a normalization deal between his country and Saudi Arabia.
Last week Netanyahu told the UN that we are on the “cusp” of a “new Middle East” before taking out a map with Palestine erased. If he’s feeling emboldened, who can blame him?
Menendez and the Israel Lobby
The scandal surrounding Bob Menendez has quickly grown so cartoonishly severe that multiple Democratic lawmakers are calling for his resignation.
The indicted New Jersey Senator has also not exactly put forward the most reassuring defense. He claims he adopted the “old-fashioned” habit of stashing huge amounts of cash around his house because his family had their money confiscated in Cuba. One assumes he’s trying to blame this on Castro, as he’s spent his entire congressional career attempting to cripple the island via severe sanctions and a criminal blockade. However, he was born in New York years before the revolution.
Menendez has earned his reputation as one of the Israel Lobby’s favorite Democrats. He opposed the Iran Deal, supports the Taylor Force Act, cosponsored anti-BDS legislation, and backed moving the embassy to Jerusalem. If he ends up finally facing repercussions for his actions, will there be implications on the Israel front?
Last week Chuck Schumer announced that Menendez would step down as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC). He will be replaced by fellow Israel hawk Ben Cardin (D-MD), but Cardin plans to retire next year.
Mitchell Plitnick has a good piece breaking down particulars and possibilities at the site. He notes that there could be some welcomed changes, even if Menendez somehow wriggles out of yet another controversy.
“Even if Menedez manages to beat the rap again, the stench of this accusation is very likely to hang over his re-election campaign next year,” Plitnick writes. “In 2018, the last time he ran, there were years between his indictment and the election, and the story had fallen from the headlines by the time his trial ended. Now, there will be mere months. Doubtless, New Jersey’s Democratic governor, Phil Murphy—who has already called on Menendez to resign—relishes the idea of putting his own stamp on the Senate race in 2024 by appointing an interim replacement for Menendez, but this is unlikely to change much as Murphy is known as being staunchly pro-Israel as well.
“But if the SFRC loses both Cardin and Menendez, it would create an opening for Palestine advocates to press for more influence with the committee,” he continues. “People like Van Hollen, Merkley, and Murphy will all be receptive to a point, especially with Israel’s current far-right government, and they’ll all be more senior members of the committee with the two hawks at the top gone if they retain their seats on the committee.”
At Jewish Insider Marc Rod notes that the situation could interrupt the timeline for Jack Lew’s nomination and “creates new questions about major issues that could come before the committee, such as votes around a trilateral deal involving the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and Israel or renewed efforts to finalize a nuclear deal with Iran.”
Many individuals and groups are distancing themselves from Menendez, but at least a couple are notably holding out. Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) put out a statement noting that the Senator has been a “champion of the U.S.-Israel relationship” and that he deserves a fair trial. AIPAC also praised Menendez’s work on Israel and said they weren’t bailing yet.
A true friend is someone who will stand by you when you’re in trouble after all.
Odds & Ends
???????? At UN Netanyahu says Israel is at ‘cusp’ of Saudi deal, brandishes map that erases Palestine’
???????? ‘Palestinian Americans are now tourists in their own land’–Human Rights Watch program director Sari Bashi in The Hill:
Imagine what positive changes could be possible if the U.S. government were to heed calls to suspend its $3.8 billion annual military support to Israel, so long as the Israeli authorities continue discriminatory policies and practices that human rights organizations, legal experts and even some mainstream Israeli scholars have concluded amount to apartheid.
The U.S. has all this leverage. It should use that leverage to pressure Israeli authorities to respect the right of Palestinians like my children’s grandmother to travel freely between Gaza and the West Bank, and to enter Israel not as tourists, but as refugees returning home.
⚖️ The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is suing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over Israel’s entry into the U.S. Visa Waiver Program (VWP).
“The requirements of the Visa Waiver Program are clear and unambiguous. The U.S. government is obligated to ensure that all Americans are treated equally,” said ADC National Executive Director Abed Ayoub in a statement. “It is our intent to hold the US government accountable for any actions that create separate classes of US citizens. Admitting Israel into the Visa Waiver Program would be an endorsement of discrimination against Palestinian and Arab Americans.”
????️ CNN runs an op-ed from ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt asking when colleges will finally stand up to antisemitism. The piece cites a recent ADL study which claims anti-Zionist activism has doubled at universities over the past year. What does this have to with antisemitism exactly?
“To be sure, criticism and debate over the policies of the State of Israel, just like criticism of the policies and actions of any country, is part of a healthy campus ecosystem,” writes Greenblatt. “The First Amendment protects the right to boycott, as well as the right to engage in harsh and divisive rhetoric. Undoubtedly, one can criticize Israel’s leaders and actions without being antisemitic. But too often, campus anti-Israel activity goes far beyond these bounds.”
Greenblatt often trots out this refrain, but he very rarely indicates what kind of Israel criticism is actually acceptable. Makes you think.
???????? Reactions to the visa waiver news:
USCPR Manager of Policy and Advocacy Campaigns Mohammed Khader: ““The Biden Administration’s designation of Israel to be admitted into the Visa Waiver Program is a heinous lapse of oversight that relegates U.S. law below Israeli law and exchanges the rights of U.S. citizens for closer ties with an apartheid state that arms authoritarian governments abroad. Lawmakers must ensure all snapback measures are triggered toward Israel, as it continues to show a clear and consistent pattern of unequal treatment of U.S. citizens in violation of U.S. law.”
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) National Director Nihad Awad: “It is clear that Israel is not currently in compliance with the Visa Waiver Program admission requirements, and the Biden administration must not rush to admit Israel into the program at the expense of the requirement of reciprocity for all U.S. citizens. CAIR and human rights organizations strongly urge Secretary Blinken and the Biden administration to heed the concerns raised by Palestinian and Muslim Americans and to deny Israel’s admission into the Visa Waiver Program until it can fully comply with all of the requirements and not harass and discriminate against American travelers.”
Representative Rashida Tlaib (MI-12): “The Biden Administration’s decision to admit Israel into the Visa Waiver Program explicitly condones and enables the Israeli government’s discriminatory practices towards Americans requesting entry, including hours of detainment and interrogation.
The far-right Israeli government routinely discriminates against Americans seeking to enter the country, even denying myself and Congresswoman Omar entry in 2019. This decision enables further racist practices and violence towards Americans including the murder of Shireen Abu Akleh. The United States has yet to hold the Israeli government accountable.
The Visa Waiver Program requires that all U.S. citizens are treated equally. I have received consistent reports of discrimination of Americans attempting to enter Israel. No one should be discriminated against due to their national origin, ethnicity, or faith.
By moving forward with this decision, the U.S. government is allowing a foreign government to discriminate against its own citizens based on protected class. The Israeli government has not and will not uphold reciprocity.”
JVP Action Political Director Beth Miller: “The Biden administration just endorsed the systematic discrimination of US citizens of Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim descent. And handed a massive victory to the most extremist and racist government in Israeli history.”
FMEP President Lara Friedman: “The US violating its own rules to admit Israel into the Visa Waiver program is just the latest in a US policy that has for decades centered on guaranteeing Israeli impunity while lavishly rewarding it for thumbing its nose at US policy and international law.”
Adalah Justice Project Executive Director Sandra Tamari: “”It is shameful that the U.S. continues to grant Israel not only unfettered impunity for violations of international law and human rights abuses, but also rewards it for its discriminatory policies. The U.S. has admitted Israel into the visa waiver program despite Israel’s continued discrimination against U.S. citizens who are Palestinian. Israel’s discrimination is especially egregious against Palestinian Americans with ties to Gaza, making reunification of families torn apart by Israel’s siege and blockade of Gaza near impossible. Apartheid is not only Israeli policy, it is U.S. policy too.”
✉️ From Palestine Legal:
On Wednesday, Palestine Legal and the Center for Constitutional Rights wrote to the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) warning them to cease attempts to unlawfully censor the upcoming Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism (ICSZ) convening, “Battling the ‘IHRA definition’: Theory & Activism”, which is set to be jointly held at UCSC and New York University (NYU) on October 13th and 14th. The convening is a working meeting of the Institute’s community of scholars and activists, aimed at combating dangerous efforts to use a distorted definition of antisemitism to silence advocacy for Palestinian rights. On September 5th (in a statement updated September 8), UCSC criticized the convening following smears from right-wing media outlets and Israel lobby groups.”
????️ ‘Netanyahu erases Palestine in maps new and old’
???? ‘Saudi-Israel normalisation: The grand illusion’
???? ‘Oslo after thirty: A paradigm beyond partition’
????️ On the podcast I interviewed journalist Antony Loewenstein about his book “The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World.”
Stay safe out there,
Michael
