The United States said Wednesday it will start letting Israelis visit without visas, granting a longstanding wish of its ally after concluding it had reduced discrimination against Arab Americans -- an assessment rejected by some lawmakers and activists.
By the end of November, Israelis will be in the same league as citizens of most Western nations by not needing visas for trips of 90 days or less to the world's largest economy.
"We have worked on this for many years, close to a decade," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
"I would like to express our deep gratitude to US President Joe Biden for his support for the move, a move that will further strengthen the ties between the nations."
The Biden administration made the decision after Israel in July promised a series of steps to comply with longstanding US demands to treat all US passport holders equally -- without discriminating against Americans who are of Palestinian or other Arab heritage or who are Muslim.
Visa-free travel marks "a critical step forward in our strategic partnership with Israel that will further strengthen longstanding people-to-people engagement, economic cooperation and security coordination," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
He said the end result will be greater "freedom of movement for US citizens, including those living in the Palestinian Territories or traveling to and from them."
A US official briefing reporters insisted that the decision was not a "favor" to Israel but the result of progress.
But Biden is also increasingly seeking to work with Netanyahu -- whose hard-right government the US president has frequently criticized -- to seek a historic peace deal with Saudi Arabia.
Ahmed Majdalani, the Palestinian social affairs minister, said the US decision "appears to be a reward" for letting Palestinian Americans enter Israel.
"It also confirms that America stands by Israel all the time," he told AFP.
A number of lawmakers from Biden's own Democratic Party had urged Blinken not to go ahead before a Saturday deadline and instead exert pressure for greater change.
"It is clear that Israel is not in compliance with this law as it relates to reciprocal treatment for all US citizens," said a letter signed by 15 senators led by Chris Van Hollen and Brian Schatz, and including Bernie Sanders.
- Enough progress? -
Already, Israel does not require visas for Americans generally.
But until the July agreement, Palestinian Americans seeking to enter the West Bank were obliged to cross by the Allenby Bridge with Jordan and were not allowed through Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel's main international gateway.
The Democratic senators said that more action was necessary as US citizens who hold Palestinian identification cards still cannot rent cars at Ben Gurion and cannot go through Israeli checkpoints that prohibit Palestinians.
An Arab American group on Tuesday announced a lawsuit to seek to stop visa-free status for Israelis.
"Admitting Israel into the visa waiver program would be an endorsement of discrimination against Palestinian and Arab Americans," said Abed Ayoub, national executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
J Street, a progressive pro-Israel group frequently critical of Netanyahu, welcomed easier travel for Israelis but said it was clear that the US requirements "are being bent and adjusted to accommodate Israel in a way that they have not been for other countries."
But another US official said Israel met demands by keeping refusal of Americans seeking to enter as non-immigrants at 2.27 percent in the last fiscal year, within the target of a maximum three percent.
US officials said they could rescind the visa waiver status if there is backsliding.
Historically the United States, in letting foreigners enter without visas, has been most concerned that they not stay illegally and that their countries issue secure passports.
Nearly all Western nationals enjoy visa-free entry into the United States including people from all European Union members except Bulgaria, Cyprus and Romania.
Other beneficiaries include people from high-income Asian societies -- Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Brunei.
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