US to monitor Palestinian-Americans' access to Israel and West Bank

Pilot scheme forms part of preparations for Israel's accession to visa waiver programme

Palestinian-Americans' access to Israel and West Bank will be monitored by US officials. AP

Washington will monitor Palestinian-Americans' freedom to travel to Israel next month amid preparations for the extension of US visa exemptions to Israelis, officials said on Monday.

Israel has satisfied some of the conditions for the US visa waiver programme, to which it hopes to be admitted by October.

However, it must first demonstrate reciprocal access for Palestinian-Americans to enter its borders and the occupied West Bank.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told Ynet TV on Sunday that a "pilot programme" to keep the country's VWP candidacy on track would be launched in mid-July. He did not elaborate.

An official briefed on the preparations said the pilot would entail a 30- to 45-day period during which US delegates will keep tabs on Palestinian-American travel through Ben Gurion Airport and across West Bank checkpoints.

This could put fresh strain on Israeli forces amid an increase in violence in the West Bank, where Palestinians' statehood hopes have festered amid an almost decade-long impasse in US-sponsored peace talks.

The Biden administration has also locked horns with Israel's government over settlement policies in the West Bank.

The pilot will test access, not only for US-domiciled Palestinian-Americans, but also for those based in the West Bank.

"If you're a Palestinian-American living in Ramallah, this means you can spend up to 90 days in Tel Aviv (on an Israeli entry visa)," the official, who declined to be identified by name or nationality, told Reuters.

Neither the Israeli military nor the Interior Ministry have clarified how they will accommodate the pilot programme.

Citing US census data, the Arab-American Institute Foundation estimates the number of Palestinian-descended Americans at between 122,500 and 220,000.

Between 45,000 and 60,000 of them are in the West Bank, the official briefed on the VWP preparations said. It added that the pilot will not apply to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, where a small number of Palestinian-Americans live.