The official spokesman for the US State Department, Matthew Miller, acknowledged on Wednesday that the visa exemption program, which his government had announced Israel’s inclusion in early the same day, and which requires that all Americans be treated equally regardless of their ethnic backgrounds, gives Israel an exception because of its special security needs.

Miller said in his response to the questions of Al-Quds correspondent Shukran regarding the Ministry and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s complete conviction that Israel has fully fulfilled all its obligations to join the visa program, “We are convinced that it (Israel has fulfilled the requirements for joining the Visa Waiver Program, and this is the recommendation) Which Secretary Blinken submitted to the Department of Homeland Security, and which was ultimately decided by Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.”

Miller added: “Over the past few months, as we have been piloting this program with the government of Israel, we have seen more than a hundred thousand American citizens enter Israel without a visa. This includes tens of thousands of Americans on the Palestinian registry who have traveled to Israel without a visa. However, “We have ongoing monitoring programs that will be implemented for Israel, and as with every other member of the Visa Waiver Program, we will monitor their compliance closely as we move forward.”

When the Al-Quds.com correspondent followed up on the US government’s confirmation that Israel’s behavior towards Palestinian-Americans depends on the standards of conformity with which it deals with Americans of non-Palestinian origins, Miller said: “I said that they met the requirements of the Visa Waiver Program. And as we have discussed many times on this "There are differences, especially with regard to Gaza. We must remember that Gaza is under the control of a foreign terrorist organization. We expect that there will be different procedures," he said, explaining, "We understand that there are different procedures (because of its own security needs), but we looked at the plans and policies that “Israel has put it in place and we have determined that it meets the Visa Waiver Program, but we will continue to monitor their compliance moving forward.”

He did not comment on a question regarding the possibility of Israel abusing the “privacy of its security needs” to impose additional restrictions on Palestinian-American travelers, or whether in this case Washington would remove Israel from the program if these incidents were repeated, saying only, “I do not want to enter into any assumptions.” “Other than saying we monitor ongoing compliance with the program and we have the ability to take steps up to and including excluding people from countries from the program going forward if they fail to remain in compliance.”

In what was considered a major political victory for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who heads the most right-wing and extremist government in the history of Israel, the administration of US President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that Israel had been accepted into the US Visa Waiver Program (VWP), after years of efforts to... This was made by the two governments, “which provides a significant boost to bilateral relations,” according to a joint statement by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and National Security.

Instead of waiting several months to apply for and secure a visa, in the future, Israelis will only be required to fill out an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) form several days before embarking on a tourist or business trip to the United States for a period of up to 90 days. .

The United States still needs time to prepare its electronic systems for Israel to join the Visa Waiver Program, but Biden administration officials who briefed reporters on Tuesday before the official announcement said they expect those systems to be ready by November 30, 2023.

Multiple Arab-American groups, including the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), condemned in the strongest terms Wednesday Israel's admission into the US Visa Waiver Program (VWP). This decision, taken by the Departments of Homeland Security and State, does not undermine the rights of Americans of Palestinian and Arab descent. Not only does it make Israel's discriminatory practices part of the American program.

According to the first Arab American human rights organization, “Israel has not shown equal treatment towards American citizens, and the two-month assessment conducted by the United States government is completely inadequate.”

The US administration's decision came in the wake of a lawsuit filed by ADC on Tuesday evening, which states that "DHS is not following the law by redefining the meaning of reciprocity, a basic principle of the Visa Waiver Program that requires participating countries to treat all American citizens equally." ".