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Urge your Member of Congress to push the State Department to ensure that Israel treats all American citizens equally
Today, Israel's Coordinating Office for Government Affairs in the Territories’ (COGAT) new West Bank regulations will come into effect. Among the regulations are draconian restrictions intended to micro-engineer the public and private lives of Palestinians (including American citizens) that would subject them to a restrictive screening process and arbitrarily limit entry to the West Bank. Unfortunately, Palestinian-Americans are already not afforded the same basic rights as other American passport holders when traveling to Israel and the Occupied Territories –these new procedures officially codify Israel’s informal pervasive discriminatory practices.
At the same time, Israel is requesting to join the United States Visa Waiver Program. If they were deemed eligible, this program would ease and expedite the entry process for Israeli travelers visiting the United States. Until now, Israel has been denied admission to the program due to its failure to give reciprocal treatment to US travelers. The formal implementation of COGAT’s discriminatory practices brings Israel further from eligibility for the Visa Waiver Program.
We support Israel’s admission into the Visa Waiver Program. But if, and only if, they meet all of the requirements. And it is clear that currently, they do not.
Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA) is leading an important letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken asking the administration to address the unfair and discriminatory treatment of US citizens attempting to travel to Israel and the West Bank and to assure that Israel meets the reciprocity requirement before allowing entry into the Visa Waiver Program.Before Israeli passport holders can receive special treatment from the United States, Israel must treat all of our citizens equally and afford all Americans the same basic rights.
Click here to ask your member of Congress to sign on to this important letter.
Urge your Member of Congress to Speak Out Against the Suppression of Palestinian Civil Society
Last fall, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz declared that six prominent Palestinian rights groups were “terrorist organizations.” These civil society groups, Al Haq; Addameer; Defense For Children International-Palestine; Bisan; the Union of Agricultural Work Committees; and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, work directly with Palestinian women and girls, children, low-income families, prisoners, and civil society activists, providing direct services and monitoring human rights abuses by both Israeli and Palestinian authorities.
In the months since, Israel has failed to provide any public evidence to substantiate its allegations. The "secret" documents distributed to European diplomats, members of Congress, and administration officials by the Israeli government fail to provide concrete evidence of the alleged connections between the groups and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). While the evidence behind these claims has still not been made clear, what is clear is the significant chilling effect the Israeli government’s attacks on Palestinian NGOs will have on both Palestinian and Israeli civil society.
Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) is leading an important letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, expressing serious concern for the six Palestinian human rights organizations and requesting an inter-agency briefing to discuss this designation and the secret evidence distributed by the Israeli government. The letter urges Secretary Blinken and Director Haines to; call on the Israeli government to reverse course; to confirm a date for an inter-agency briefing with members of Congress; and provide a report to Congress on these efforts within 30 days, and ultimately to publicly reject this decision.
We cannot and should not be silent in light of this naked attempt at suppression. Click here to ask your member of Congress to join Representative Pressley on this important letter.
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