The Biden administration is allowing Israel to audition for a special status that would

allow enable

Israelis

Unpleasant

travel to the US without a visa, but only if Israel can prove that it will no longer discriminate against Palestinian-American travelers.

For more than a decade, Israel has sought membership in the United States Visa Waiver Program, a privilege held by about 40

other

mainly European countries whose citizens can enter the US without a visa.

But restrictions imposed by the Israeli government on the movement of Palestinian Americans, including sometimes refusing to allow them to use the country’s international airport, have prevented them from participating in the program, US officials say.

That is what the US government said on Wednesday and

government officials of

Israel signed a memorandum of understanding in which Israel

would

promise

S

to deal with

for a bit

all traveling US citizens

for a bit

regardless of national origin, religion or ethnicity through all ports of entry, including Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv.

“We understand that this policy will apply to U.S. citizens, including Palestinian Americans on the Palestinian population register, and that will initiate a process where we will monitor not only their implementation of this policy, but also their compliance with this policy and compliance with other facets of the visa waiver program,” said Matthew Miller, spokesman for the State Department.

“And with

September 30th

September 30th [the end of the fiscal year]the U.S. government will decide whether they deserve admission to the program,” Miller said.

US officials will monitor Israel’s compliance for the next six years

–

Unpleasant

–

eight weeks before Israelis can

travel to USA come here

without a visa, two other senior government officials said separately, briefing reporters on the condition of anonymity ahead of the formal announcement.

The officials declined to outline in detail how the monitoring would work, whether US agencies would place observers at the airport and other points of entry or try similar methods, but

said insisted

they were determined to get accurate reports on the treatment of US citizens.

We have an approach where we can pull information from a variety of sources, said one of the government officials. Our goal is to collect as much information as possible so that we can arrive at a judgment that most likely captures what actually happens rather than what was told.

Palestinian Americans have long complained of being discriminated against, mistreated, subjected to harsh questioning, and faced with other obstacles when they try to travel through Israel, usually on their way to the West Bank or Gaza Strip, or back to Israel from those areas.

the

to pray

government officials acknowledged that the Israeli government has known for years what steps it must take to access the visa waiver program. This is the first time Israelis have committed to fulfilling the requirements at the same time as the visa

–

the refusal rate for Israelis fell below 3%, another eligibility requirement for the trial, one of the officials said.

“What Israel promises to do would represent a significant change in its policy regarding the entry of US citizens,” the official added. “I hope… that what this is changing [is] how Israel essentially treats all US citizens,” especially those with Palestinian or other US dual citizenship.

The announcement

coincided with cameas

Israeli President Isaac Herzog

‘s made on

official visit to Washington, where he delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, a day after a meeting with President Biden at the White House. He did not mention the visa program in public remarks, but State Department officials said a “breakthrough” on the matter had been made on Tuesday. Reports from Israel say the steps it agreed to will begin on Thursday.