WASHINGTON — For the first time, Palestinian Americans will be able to enter and leave Israel through its main airport, part of a major policy change that will significantly ease access to the country for hundreds of thousands of West Bank residents and Palestinians abroad.
The change was made as part of Israel’s effort to join the Visa Waiver Program, which would enable Israelis to travel to the US for up to 90 days without first obtaining a visa.
One of the key obstacles to joining the program was that Palestinian citizens of the US, like all Palestinians, have been barred from using Ben Gurion International Airport and must instead travel through Jordan.
The US has demanded that in order to join the program, Israel must treat all US citizens entering the country equally, no matter their national origin.
Under a memorandum of understanding signed July 19, Israel will move closer to treating US citizens who hold Palestinian identity documents as they would any others entering Israel.
Palestinian Americans, including those coming from the West Bank, would be allowed to enter Israel for a 90-day period and travel where they wish, as would any other US citizen.
The memorandum was signed by Michael Herzog, the Israeli ambassador to Washington; Tom Nides, the US ambassador to Israel; and Rob Silvers, the Dept. of Homeland Security undersecretary for policy.
“This is a significant milestone towards Israel joining the program,” Herzog wrote on Twitter, attaching a photo of himself signing the document.
Tzachi HaNegbi, Israel’s national security advisor, said Israel’s compliance with the document would begin as of Thursday, July 27.
The memorandum appears to include two major caveats that likely will not please Palestinian Americans who have been lobbying for this change.
• Palestinian Americans living in the West Bank must still pre-apply for entry through the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, or COGAT, the Israeli military authority that governs aspects of Palestinian life in the West Bank.
That provision would remain in place until May 1 of next year, when Israel says COGAT’s database will be integrated with the broader database that it uses at points of entry. Thereafter, Palestinian Americans will not need to pre-apply.
The US has expressed a desire for the screening to take a maximum of 24 to 48 hours.
• The other caveat is that the new terms will not be extended to Americans currently living in the Gaza Strip. In their case, cumbersome travel requirements will be only slightly eased.
The deadline for entering the Visa Waiver Program, a club whose membership Israel has coveted for decades, is Sept. 30.
Israel sees membership in the program as a means to facilitate business in the US and allow Israeli citizens to tour the US at will.
A subset of Israelis who have been denied visas have said the refusal has incurred financial and personal costs.
The reverse is not the case with US citizens traveling to Israel. They generally arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport without pre-arranged visas, although they may still be flagged at the airport if immigration officials uncover anything meriting suspicion.
The US will monitor the new policies regarding Palestinian Americans, which Israel has portrayed as a pilot initiative, and will decide by the deadline if Israel merits joining the Visa Waiver Program.
“Our understanding is that this policy will apply to US citizens, including Palestinian Americans on the Palestinian population registry,” Matthew Miller, the State Dept. spokesman, said July 19 at a daily press briefing.
“And that will begin a process in which we will monitor not just their implementation of these policies but their compliance with these policies and compliance with other facets of the Visa Waiver Program.”
Pro-Israel groups, led by AIPAC, have for years pressed for Israel’s entry into the program. Last month, 65 senators from both parties urged the Biden administration to accelerate Israel’s entry into the program.
“Israel’s entry into the US Visa Waiver Program will serve as a bridge to bring the American and Israeli people closer together by fostering personal connections and mutual understanding,” said William Daroff, the CEO of the Conference of presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
“It will enrich both of our countries through shared knowledge, experiences, and perspectives.”
Progressive Democrats, backed by Arab American groups, have urged the administration to slow-walk Israel’s entry. The State Dept. has warned that Arab Americans traveling to Israel may face difficulties and discrimination.
Ending discrimination based on national origin was the last of three conditions Israel had to meet to join the program. it has met the other two requirements: reshaping its intelligence-sharing apparatus to sync with those of the other member countries, and meeting a threshold of fewer than 3% of Israelis applying for visas to the US being denied those visas by the US.
The visa denial threshold was a daunting challenges for Israel to overcome. US immigration officials were on the lookout for Israelis seeking to work illegally in the US because of a once-thriving industry of young Israelis who sold products at US malls. Thus, more than 3% of Israelis seeking visas were denied.
Israeli officials are concerned that the end of the pandemic will increase the number of Israelis seeking to enter the US to work illegally. If that happens before Israel joins the program, membership would again be off the table.
Said Scott Lasensky, a former American diplomat who has published extensively on the visa waiver question, that if the US approval of Israel’s entry into the visa waiver program is delayed, post-pandemic travel from Israel will probably notch Israel back up over the 3% refusal rate mandated by Congress.”
Once a country is in the Visa Waiver Program, however, it stays in, even if visa refusal rates climb.
A number of countries, particularly in eastern and Central Europe, have in the past spiked above the threshold but stayed in.
The memorandum signed last week, however, suggests that Israel may still be susceptible to being booted out of the program. “Under US law, the Secretary of Homeland Security has broad discretion to undertake remedial measures, including in consultation with the Secretary of State, the suspension or termination a country from the VWP,” it says.
A sticking point may be whether Israel discriminates against Arab Americans who are not on the Palestinian population registry. The memorandum requires spot-checks of statistics regarding denial of visa entry and examination of “persons referred or detained for enhanced screening, questioning, or examination.”
