Israeli Discrimination May Be Written Into U.S. Law

[yankeedoodle]

Israeli Discrimination May Be Written Into U.S. Law
Israel's border policies are a danger to the principles of visa reciprocity
.https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/06/20/israel-visa-waiver-program-united-states-palestine/

Starting in July, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the State Department reportedly plan to admit Israel into the selective U.S. Visa Waiver Program (VWP) following a one-month trial. If Israel can demonstrate that it has ended its practice of discriminating against Americans on the basis of national origin, religion, or political views, that waiver will become permanent. Under the principle of reciprocity, entry into the program requires that all Americans traveling to and through a participating VWP country, or territories held by that country, be treated in exactly the same way as that participating country's nationals are treated when they travel to the United States.

Americans of certain backgrounds, namely Arabs and Muslims, have long suffered discriminatory treatment when visiting Israel—something the U.S. government warns travelers to beware of on the State Department's website. Nevertheless, just days before the trial period is supposed to start, Americans are still reporting discriminatory treatment at Israeli border crossings, and no mechanism exists to determine the number of American travelers who have been barred from the area—or the reasons for their exclusion.

Recent reports that the U.S. Embassy in Israel is negotiating an agreement that would effectively create a special exception to exempt Israel from the program's reciprocity requirement are of deep concern. Without an agreement that ensures Israel will honor the principle of reciprocity and respect the rights of all American travelers, the visa waiver agreement between the United States and Israel is likely to become the first one to enshrine discrimination against certain American travelers as acceptable.

Under the reported agreement, some Americans—namely those who hold a Palestinian ID—would be required to obtain a military-issued permit to travel to Israel to use the airport and visit family members in the West Bank, while other Americans would only be subject to civil law and given free access to the West Bank for any purpose, with no restrictions on their entry and travel throughout the area.

Such an agreement for differential treatment of Americans would violate the fundamental reciprocity principle upon which the highly coveted U.S. Visa Waiver Program was built and would effectively normalize ethnoreligious discrimination and racial profiling of American citizens. No other country of the 40 current participants in the waiver program has had difficulty committing fully to the requirement for reciprocity of treatment—a fundamental tenet that undergirds all of its diplomatic interactions, as well as international human rights conventions and stated U.S. values of civil rights, justice, and equality.

The aim of the U.S. Visa Waiver Program is to ensure and enhance the security of all Americans. No country has a "right" to enter the program. It is and was designed to be selective and, as such, has several concrete requirements that any participating country must meet to gain entry.

The U.S. government has no authority to negotiate away the rights of some Americans, and it's outrageous that it would consider such a thing. Of course, the 30,000 to 70,000 Palestinian Americans who live in the West Bank and the hundreds who live in Gaza should be able to use the airport in Israel; that should be non-negotiable. But the inquiry into whether Israel qualifies for the program does not end there.

The number of Americans affected by Israel's discriminatory legal regime at border crossings is much broader than those who claim Palestinian descent. They include Arab and Muslim Americans and those born in, or who have ever held travel documents from, states Israel considers enemies—in several cases, even after they have signed peace agreements and/or normalized relations with Israel, such as Jordan and Morocco.

It also includes any American who publicly supports constitutionally protected political boycotts of Israel—including U.S. members of Congress—or those who write, teach, or speak out about Palestinian human rights. In contrast, the United States does not impose restrictions on the travel of Israeli visitors—regardless of their political views, countries of origin (including those with Russian nationality), or beliefs.

Members of the current Israeli government who express abhorrent views about wiping out Palestinian towns have obtained visas to enter the United States. Israeli short-term visitors, many of whom are young former soldiers who in the past have shown to be at increased risk of overstaying their visas, are free to use any U.S. airport to transit through to another port of entry anywhere in the country or on their way to another destination.

The United States does not demand that Israeli short-term visitors obtain special permits issued by the military to enter certain parts of the United States or U.S. territories, and it does not require Israeli visitors to submit to security checks that do not apply to all other travelers, regardless of their national origin. But this is how some classes of Americans experience Israel and the occupied territories when they attempt to travel there.

Because of the special challenges presented by Israel and the regime it imposes on certain groups of travelers, previous administrations, including President Barack Obama's, have refrained from pursuing a visa agreement with Israel.

Before the trial period begins and Israel is admitted into the program, a mechanism must be put in place to ensure that the discriminatory treatment and racial profiling of Americans at Israeli-controlled border crossings and checkpoints has ended. For example, at the land crossing between Jordan and Israel, where the United States apparently does not have accurate numbers for how many Americans are being excluded from entry each year, systems should be put in place so that travelers are able to scan their own passports, which would allow U.S. officials to know when an American is attempting to enter and can therefore monitor occurrences of entry denials or ill treatment.

Until such processes are put in place, there will be no way to know if Israel is complying with the terms of the Visa Waiver Program, and Americans will continue to face discrimination. A pilot program without such mechanisms to test compliance eviscerates the very reason for having a trial period. The DHS and State Department must take the time to get this right, or, if that goal is not achievable, they must avoid greenlighting Israeli policies that have been harming certain groups of Americans for decades. If they do anything less than guarantee full compliance with the reciprocity requirement, the Biden administration will effectively be writing racial discrimination back into U.S. law.




US Visa Waiver Program: Alleged Bias towards Israel
https://workpermit.com/news/us-visa-waiver-program-alleged-bias-towards-israel-20230619

By Sanwar Ali:
The US Visa Waiver Program (VWP) gives preferential treatment to nationals of certain countries and allows citizens from those countries to travel to the US for tourism or business purposes, without having to apply for a visa at a US Embassy or Consulate. However, the program has sparked controversy due to allegations of preferential treatment towards Israel. As a result, the question arises: Will Palestinian Americans continue to face discrimination when visiting Israel?

Index
Understanding the US Visa Waiver Program
Allegations of Bias towards Israel
The Experience of Palestinian Americans
The US Visa Waiver Program and Israel: A Controversial Move
The Future of the US Visa Waiver Program

Understanding the US Visa Waiver Program
The US Visa Waiver Program allows citizens of 39 countries to travel to the United States without a visa for stays of 90 days or less, when they meet all requirements. These countries include most European nations, Australia, Japan, and South Korea.

The program has specific requirements that participant countries must meet, such as a low nonimmigrant visa refusal rate and reciprocal visa-free travel rights for US citizens. Non-immigrant US visas, include the B1 visa for business travelers, the B2 visa for tourists, the L1 visa for intracompany transferees, and the H1B visa for specialized workers.

However, most countries are not included under the visa waiver scheme. Being included under the scheme makes it much easier to gain entry to the US.

Allegations of Bias towards Israel
Israel has long sought to join the US Visa Waiver Program and has spent two decades lobbying the US government for inclusion. The potential benefits for Israel are significant, as it could boost the country's economy by making tourism and business travel easier.

However, critics argue that Israel is receiving preferential treatment in the admission process, citing allegations of Israel's discriminatory practices against Palestinian Americans as a critical concern.

The Experience of Palestinian Americans
Palestinian Americans often face a complex and challenging journey when they attempt to visit Israel. Rather than flying directly into Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport, many choose to enter from Jordan via the King Hussein Bridge Border Crossing. This practice is due to the risk of being refused entry by the Israeli authorities and having to return to the US. If you enter via the bridge instead of Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport you can return to Jordan instead.

These travelers often face lengthy delays at Israeli passport control, where they are subject to rigorous screening. Furthermore, they may be subject to further discrimination, with the Israeli authorities operating a network of checkpoints.

Conversely, illegal Israeli settlers, regardless of their citizenship, are allowed to reside on occupied land in violation of international law. They enjoy unrestricted movement, highlighting a stark contrast in treatment.

The US Visa Waiver Program and Israel: A Controversial Move
Despite these allegations of discrimination, the Biden administration is considering admitting Israel into the US Visa Waiver Program. This move would allow Israelis to travel to the US without applying for a visa at a US embassy or consulate.

The Visa Waiver Program is intended to be reciprocal, meaning that US citizens should be treated the same way as Israeli citizens when traveling to Israel. However, critics argue that Israel does not meet this reciprocity requirement due to its practices of discrimination against certain US citizens, particularly those of Palestinian descent.

US ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, is set to oversee a one-month "trial period" during which Israeli authorities are supposed to allow Palestinian Americans to enter Israel and use the Tel Aviv airport. Critics argue that this trial period is merely a formality and that it is unlikely that Israel will fail to meet the requirements of the Visa Waiver Program.

The Future of the US Visa Waiver Program
16 Democratic Senators in the US have expressed concerns about Israel being admitted to the US Visa Waiver Program, without ending discriminatory practices against all Americans. it could potentially be seen as an endorsement of these practices by the US government.

The US government should ensure that any country wishing to join the Visa Waiver Program complies fully with all federal laws and does not discriminate against any US citizens. If Israel is allowed to join the program without meeting these criteria, it could set a concerning precedent for future admissions to the program.

[abduLMaria]

Israeli's visiting the US are free to attack Americans AT WILL, with almost no recourse.

In my case they staged a high-tech indoctrination session that involved the administration of a Date-Rape drug like Rohypnol.  At the end of the high-tech indoctrination, they administer a drug that causes retrograde amnesia - so that you can't remember the incident, and wake up feeling normal, almost.  In March 1995.

The CIA was giving Israel the MK-Ultra technology in 1995, and I was one of the guinea pigs.

The purpose of the Coercion to which I was subjected was to force me to adopt the Christian mythology - to become a Christian.

And, if I rebelled against that, to Kill Myself.  Starting in May 1995, I was suicidal for 7 months.  But I knew there was something artificial going on, and managed to compartmentalize that AND smoke a lot of cigarettes.

This is how Cointelpro worked, and perhaps works.  The militant Jews that run the US government are serious about getting rid of Dissidents.

Historian Anton Chaitkin wrote a book about the ADL, "The Ugly Truth about the ADL".

Kind of a limited hang-out document that describes Cointelpro 2.

Anton is also the co-author of
http://tarpley.net/online-books/george-bush-the-unauthorized-biography/chapter-2-the-hitler-project/

The CIA is of course not free to kidnap US citizens and to subject them to Medical Experiments, against their will.

So they farm that out to Israel.

I am pretty sure that what happened to me was a training session for the Port Arthur incident in Australia.  He was programmed, via hypnosis, to pick up an AR15 that he found, and to "just sit there", while the Mossad assassins murdered Australian Gentiles.

[yankeedoodle]

65 senators urge Israel's entry into the Visa Waiver Program by end of September   
https://www.jta.org/2023/06/21/politics/65-senators-urge-israels-entry-into-the-visa-waiver-program-by-end-of-september

Some 65 U.S. senators from both parties have urged the Biden administration to finalize Israel's entry into the Visa Waiver Program by Sept. 30.

Israel has sought to join the program, which enables citizens to travel to the United States without a visa, for decades. Currently, Israelis who do not hold citizenship in any of the 40 countries in the waiver program must apply for permission to travel to the United States, a process that typically results in a visa but can be extensive.

The letter, sent Wednesday to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Majorkas, was spearheaded by Jacky Rosen, a Nevada Democrat, and Rick Scott, a Florida Republican. It alludes to the final roadblock keeping Israel out of the program — the profiling of Arab Americans seeking entry into the country — while pressing for the September deadline.

"We recognize that there are still outstanding issues that must be addressed before Israel's participation in the program can be finalized, and we urge both sides to continue working toward addressing these issues – including the reciprocal treatment of U.S. citizens — to ensure Israel's compliance with all program requirements before the deadline of September 30, 2023," the letter says.

The letter, which is backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, comes as the current U.S. ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, aims to wrap up Israel's entry into the visa program before he leaves the post this summer.

The Times of Israel has reported that Nides is negotiating a deal under which Israel would ease but not totally remove restrictions for Palestinian Americans. Arab American groups reject such compromises and are pressing for full reciprocity.

Israel has in recent years met two of the requirements for entry into the program: Its visa refusal rate — the percentage of travelers denied visas because of evidence that they may abuse the visa by overstaying or illegally seeking employment — has dropped below the requisite 3%. Additionally, Israel's government has passed laws and introduced measures that facilitate intelligence-sharing among the member nations.

But the program's reciprocity remains a roadblock: The waiver must apply to all citizens regardless of ethnic or religious origin. Israel requires special permits of Americans holding Palestinian identity documents, and the State Department over the years has warned in travel advisories that "some U.S. citizens of Arab or Muslim heritage (including Palestinian-Americans) have experienced significant difficulties and unequal and occasionally hostile treatment at Israel's borders and checkpoints."

A number of Democrats have joined Arab American and other groups in demanding full reciprocity as a condition of Israel's entry into the program. A letter sent last month to Blinken and Mayorkas from 14 Senate Democrats urges the Biden administration not to compromise on the "blue is blue" standard, meaning that all Americans carrying a blue passport should be accorded the same treatment.

"Every country, of course, has the right to establish its own rules for the entry of foreigners," said that letter, which had the backing of J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East policy group. "However, if a country wants the privilege of participating in our Visa Waiver Program, it does not have the right to discriminate against U.S. citizens."

The new letter sent Wednesday was signed by 26 Democrats and 39 Republicans. Among Senate Democrats were Jewish senators Rosen, Ben Cardin of Maryland, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Ron Wyden of Oregon, and Michael Bennet of Colorado. Jewish signatories to the letter last month urging more stringent application of the reciprocity requirement included Brian Schatz of Hawaii, who spearheaded the letter with Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, and Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

[yankeedoodle]

US giving Israel unique treatment in visa waiver programme process, say experts   
Washington is providing Israel with a 'different set of rules', experts say, after signing a memorandum of understanding on visas
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-giving-israel-unique-treatment-visa-waiver-programme-process-say-experts

As the United States continues to assess whether or not to accept Israel into its coveted visa waiver programme - a long-sought goal of Israel's - several experts on US policy on Israel-Palestine have raised concerns that Washington is rushing through its assessment without proper scrutiny.

The experts, speaking at a webinar on Thursday hosted by the Washington-based think tank, the Arab Center, said that Israel appears to be receiving special treatment, unlike any of the other 40 countries currently in the visa programme.

"With all other countries that have entered the visa waiver programme (VWP), those countries have had to get their ducks in order before they could enter the visa programme," Adam Shapiro, advocacy director for Israel-Palestine at Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn), said during the webinar.

"They've either had to pass new legislation in their countries, set up new rules and regulations, [and] establish new electronic systems to process people coming in out of the country. All of that had to be done, accomplished and finished, and tested prior to the country entering the visa waiver programme."

However, Shapiro added that a reportedly leaked copy of a recent agreement signed by Israel and the US showed that Washington is giving Israel until May 2024 to fully implement its system of offering all US citizens visa-free travel to Israel. This is despite the 30 September deadline the US has given to decide whether or not to accept Israel into the VWP.

Middle East Eye could not independently verify the reported document.

"This is a clear exception that's been made for Israel to just sort of bypass having the systems in place," Shapiro said.

Israel's decades-long discrimination
Israel has been striving for inclusion in the visa programme for a long time. The programme permits overseas visitors to remain in the US for up to 90 days without a visa, reciprocating the same privilege to US citizens in participant countries.

Last week, US ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides and Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who was on a visit to Washington, signed a "reciprocity agreement" to allow American citizens the ability to freely enter Israel.

The US also announced it would be monitoring the changes over a period of six weeks and then make a decision about whether or not to allow Israel's entry into the visa waiver programme by 30 September.

"It appears that this trial period is short so that Israel can meet the deadline," said Zaha Hassan, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"There is no explanation for giving Israel only a few weeks to prove that its policies that have been in place for decades no longer exist."

Palestinian and other Arab Americans have long been discriminated against by Israeli authorities, as well as by Israeli forces and settlers in general.

Earlier this month, Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, said in a report that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories has turned the West Bank into an open-air prison for Palestinians.

"We have been collecting stories of how Arab Americans have been treated at Israel's borders and ports of entry for literally decades. We have petitioned our government and have gone to our government to say we are US passport holders, and this is how we are facing discrimination," Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute, said during Thursday's webinar.

"Now as we consider admitting Israel into the visa waiver programme, our government is choosing to privilege the state of Israel with entry into this programme, suggesting I think, for the first time, a different set of rules with regards to" whether an equal protection claim can be made here.

[yankeedoodle]

From Phil Giraldi   
Israeli Power Manifest in the US Visa Waiver Program
Biden bows to Israeli pressure and discrimination against Palestinian-Americans will continue
https://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/israeli-power-manifest-in-the-us-visa-waiver-program/

When I began this article early in the morning last Tuesday it must have been "let's talk about antisemitism and holocaust denial day" on the internet. On my Yahoo home page headlines display there were glaring back at me featured pieces condemning Greg Gutfeld of Fox News and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for comments made by the two men that were interpreted to be antisemitic. Kennedy, who made the mistake of suggesting that the COVID virus appeared to be made in a lab to be genetic specific, sparing inter alia Jews and Chinese ethnics who might be resistant to it, seems to be on a never ending apology tour as he has done everything but crawl on his belly as he asserts his great love for the Jewish state, and I would not doubt that the belly crawl might be coming up.

Poor Gutfeld was hammered twice, once for the "dangerous holocaust" comment that he reportedly made suggesting that some Jews survived the experience by developing useful skills in the camps, and once for the distinction of being personally rebuked by the White House. Andrew Bates, deputy White House press secretary issued a statement saying "What Fox News allowed to be said on their air yesterday — and has so far failed to condemn — is an obscenity. In defending a horrid, dangerous, extreme lie that insults the memory of the millions of Americans who suffered from the evil of enslavement, a Fox News host told another horrid, dangerous and extreme lie that insults the memory of the millions of people who suffered from the evils of the Holocaust."

As I settled in for my cup of coffee, I wondered what we might be hearing later in the day about Gutfeld from the hideous Jonathan Greenblatt of the reliably rabid Anti-Defamation League (ADL), who has already weighed in on Kennedy's sins. And even as I was wondering, the ADL response popped up: "It is not clear from Gutfeld's comments if he is arguing that Jews learned skills in the Holocaust, or that Jews who had skills had a better chance of staying alive. The latter is something that is well-documented, while the former is nonsense. That said, many millions of Jews, who, in Gutfeld's words, had 'utility,' were still murdered."

The piling on then began, with an unverifiable report that even Fox News staffers, speaking anonymously, described Gutfeld's remarks as "disgusting," saying "at any other place, his career would be over." The Auschwitz Memorial and Museum also got into the fray with "We must not overlook the larger picture of the Holocaust. Nazi Germany's ultimate goal was to exterminate all the people it considered Jews."

And to ice the cake, an article that I had not seen about the Democrats who chose to boycott the recent Joint Session of Congress speech by Israeli President Isaac Herzog also appeared, stating that "Such behavior is virulently anti-Israel and absolutely reprehensible. Each of these folks is a shame to the United States of America. And to the Democratic Party."

That all of the responses fit in comfortably with the Israeli and Zionist group standard holocaust narrative of perpetual Jewish suffering, together with the inflated victim count which does not stand serious scrutiny, should surprise no one and after I finished perusing the articles the first thought that came to mind was "Wow, if you needed any proof of the power of Jews in this country and their persistence in punishing critics, this is it!" But that was before I read an article that went well beyond the usual propaganda stream, one describing how Israel is apparently about to be approved for probationary access to the US Visa Waiver program, which will allow Israelis to travel freely to the United States. According to the article, Washington and Jerusalem have signed a "memorandum of understanding" as a first step to full waiver status which presumably will be granted after a trial period ending on September 30th.

There are currently 40 nations admitted to the program, mostly from Europe, enabling their passport holders to enter the US freely without a visa and allowing them to stay for up to 90 days. Israel and its friends in the US have been agitating for years to have Israel accepted into the program, which would likely lead to more free spending American tourists and more corporate investment in the Jewish state, but there has been a major hurdle that Israel has been unwilling to address seriously and that is the issue of "reciprocity." That means in practice that if anyone carrying an Israeli passport is free to enter the United States anyone carrying an American passport must be free to travel to Israel and enter the country. And lest there be any misunderstanding, US law requires full reciprocity to US citizens seeking entry – without regard to race, religion, or national origin. This means that if an American Jew and a Palestinian-American both holding US passports arrive at an Israeli port of entry they must be treated exactly the same when processing through customs and immigration.

Israel, however, has historically not quite seen it quite that way and reserves the right to block entry by Americans, an option particularly exercised against Americans of Palestinian origin, and other Americans like myself who come up on their data bases as being critical of the Jewish state. Palestinian-American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has even been denied entry in a recent attempt to travel to visit her grandmother. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who has been a critic of Israeli's oppression of the Palestinians, has also been barred from entering the country.

There are other issues, including the fact that Israelis are way overrepresented in current visa fraud when they travel to the United States, often overstaying the time limit on their entry permission and working while in the country. Israelis in the country illegally and working were among the art students, Dead Sea cosmetics peddlers and the "Dancing Shlomos" movers who figured in the 9/11 saga, some of whom were known to be intelligence officers spying on American Muslims. Intelligence and law enforcement sources suggest that an open door to Israeli passport holders will lead to the entry of a new wave of Mossad officers who will be working against US Palestinian and Arab groups as well as against critics of Israel.

Israel is seeking approval to enter the program and is claiming that it has now initiated a trial period that will merge into a two-year pilot program that will ease the entry process and eliminate the many complaints about the harassment of Palestinian Americans and others. US citizens of Palestinian descent have frequently reported being harassed, detained, and denied entry by Israeli officials. Arab-Americans have told of being "strip-searched, questioned for hours about family and property histories, and even forced to give access to their social media accounts." The US Embassy for its part only very rarely submits toothless complaints to the Israeli authorities about the treatment.

Because of that history, there is, inevitably, considerable skepticism about Israeli intentions. To cite only one example, Palestinian-Americans still cannot travel to the West Bank through Ben-Gurion Airport located near Tel Aviv, and are instead forced to fly into Amman, Jordan, before traveling overland to the West Bank. Furthermore, throughout the MOU, the US grants to Israel the freedom to deny any and all visitors entry for undefined security concerns – a variation on the "Israel has a right to defend itself" slogan and in itself a violation of the statuary requirements that established the Visa Waiver program. And even personal relationships are subject to scrutiny after one succeeds in entering the occupied territories. Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) requires any foreign national to "report the start of a romantic relationship with any Palestinian ID holder within 30 days."

There is particular concern that Israel will behave during the trial period and once it obtains waiver status it will return to its old ways of denying Palestinian Americans entry. One Palestinian critic observes how the problem is institutional: "What we are seeing is representative of how Israel applies its apartheid laws to Palestinians everywhere, both in the occupied territory and abroad. Israel targets Palestinians simply for being Palestinians." Even under the proposed pilot program, for example, Palestinian Americans will be able to apply for a 90-day travel pass to enter Israel but the restrictions on visiting the West Bank remain in place only for them and not for Jews visiting the illegal settlements. They are also blocked from visiting Gaza even if they have family there. The Palestinians will still need to apply to the Israeli government official for additional internal travel permits, which can easily be denied.

There is widespread belief that the so-called pilot program is a back door way for the Joe Biden Administration to bring Israel into the Visa Waiver Program without requiring it to end its systematic discrimination and abuse directed against Palestinian-Americans. It demonstrates yet again that the rule of US-Israel relations is what it always has been – zero accountability for Israel. And, together with the recent decision to permit a visit to the White House and Congress by major human rights violator Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu it is just one more indication of who holds the reins of power in Washington.

Israel's Foreign Minister Eli Cohen regards the new arrangement as a done deal, boasting how "After we finish all the necessary legislative procedures, I estimate that Israeli citizens will be able to visit the US without the need for a visa by the end of the year." That freedom is, however, the fruit of a shameful move by the Biden Administration as it is conceding to the Israelis the right to continue to apply a race card to some American passport holders. It seems that whenever there is a conflict over issues vexing Washington and Tel Aviv it is the Jewish state that always emerges as the winner.