The United States

government

has agreed to admit Israel into the elite category of countries whose citizens can travel to the US without a visa, despite questions about whether Israel is

meets meets

a core US requirement for special status: that Israel allow Palestinian Americans to travel on its territory.

American officials

on

The decision to grant Israel access to the visa waiver program is expected to be announced on Wednesday.

where to

already about 40 mainly European countries

belong. enjoy the relaxed travel status.

The decision comes after a two-month testing period during which Israel had to prove its eligibility by lifting long-standing restrictions on Palestinian Americans attempting to travel in Israel and the Palestinian areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

If

arrival en route to the West Bank

they were generally not allowed to travel from abroad

Through

the only international airport in the area,

convenient

near Tel Aviv,

forced but necessary

instead of

go travelling

by land from neighboring Jordan. And travel within Israel, the West Bank and Gaza is complicated for Palestinian Americans.

as as for

most Palestinians, through Israeli military checkpoints that often block their passage.

But Biden administration officials said late Tuesday, as the deadline for Israel’s compliance approached with the end of the U.S. government’s budget year, that they believed in the requirements

for

relaxation

trip

limits

to the US

was satisfied.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is appointing a key U.S. partner and ally in the visa waiver program, an agency spokesperson said in a briefing with reporters anonymously ahead of the formal announcement.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee filed a lawsuit Tuesday against

the

DHS continued

That

Israel had failed to meet the program’s visa waiver requirements. Anecdotally, a number of Palestinian Americans have reported the same harassment and prolonged interrogation at Israeli military checkpoints or border crossings as

has had

continued for years. Others, however, say it has made travel easier.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs collaborates with

the

The DHS said it has set up a system to monitor how Palestinian Americans are treated by Israel in their attempts to transit by soliciting their comments.

We have launched a program to monitor conditions, ensure Palestinian Americans can travel and ensure they are not discriminated against, said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. That includes talking to people who have traveled in and out of Israel and understanding their experiences. And we take all that data and look at it, and it’s part of the two agencies’ determination to determine Israel’s eligibility.

“I assume the quote ends after ‘determination’, where you have a quotation mark

Miller would not characterize the tone of the review.

Visa-free travel for Israelis is likely to take effect within eight weeks, US officials said.