Israeli official lauds entry into U.S. visa waiver program ahead of U.S. decision

Israel’s foreign minister announced that Israeli citizens can travel to the U.S. without a visa this fall, though the Biden administration has not yet confirmed it has approved Israel for the program. 

Israel’s Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, posted an announcement Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter, that Israel will enter the U.S. visa exemption program beginning in November. He said that Israelis can obtain a visa within 72 hours by filling out a form online and paying a fee of $21.

“This is a great achievement that testifies to the close relations between Israel and our great ally, the USA,” Cohen said in remarks in Hebrew. 

But that comes ahead of an expected decision by Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, who has until the end of the fiscal year — Sept. 30 — to announce the final decision.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Hill.

A State Department spokesperson told the Hill that “No final decision on Israel’s Visa Waiver Program candidacy has been made. The Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State, will make a determination in the coming days.”

Democratic senators have raised alarm that Israel has not fulfilled its obligations under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between Jerusalem and Washington in July that said Israel must allow U.S. citizens with Palestinian IDs to pass through Israeli border crossings unimpeded, and that served as a trial period to determine if Israel qualified for the U.S. visa-waiver program.

In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken sent last month, 15 Senate Democrats said Israel had not yet complied with U.S. law to allow reciprocal treatment for visa-free travel for all U.S. citizens, specifically highlighting impediments against Palestinian-Americans with residency in the Palestinian-controlled territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“We have already learned of a number of U.S. citizen families who flew to Israel to take advantage of visa waiver travel under the new MOU who were denied entry for having Gaza IDs,” the senators wrote.

“The exclusion of an entire group of U.S. citizens because of their Gaza designation on the Palestinian Population Registry is a clear violation of ‘Blue is Blue’,” the senators wrote, referring to the Biden administration’s definition that U.S. passports must be respected “regardless of national origin, religion, or ethnicity.”

The senators call the reports from Palestinian-Americans “a concerning indication of Israel’s failure to implement the reciprocity requirements.”

“[It] is clear that Israel is not in compliance with this law as it relates to reciprocal treatment for all U.S. citizens, and is not on track to come into compliance before the September 30, 2023, deadline.”

The letter was signed by Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), who were joined by Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.).