US Secretary of State Antony Blinken notified Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during meetings yesterday that the Biden administration is preparing to announce a series of visa bans against Israeli settlers involved in attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel. A US official confirmed the plan to AFP.
The announcement will likely only include the number of settlers being banned from the US, rather than their names, the Israeli official says, explaining that the US hopes that the anonymity will serve as a deterrent against those considering targeting Palestinians who won’t know whether they’ve been black-listed or not.
The visa ban could be imposed as early as next week, the Israeli official says.
US hopes that the anonymity will serve as cover for not having actually banned anyone because they have no idea who to ban.
That’s not how visa bans work ‘As a result, the Secretary of State may order U.S. consular officers at U.S. embassies and consulates in these countries to implement visa restrictions on certain categories of visa applicants. These sanctions may remain in place until the Secretary of Homeland Security notifies the Secretary of State that removal cooperation has improved to an acceptable level.’
The names of those sanctions have most likely already been uploaded to the US embassies and consulates in Israel, waiting to be denied if they go and try to get one.
And unfortunately Biden grated visa waivers for Israel earlier this year. Nobody has to apply for a visa so there is no screening process or way to weed these bad actors out.
May be linked to this development https://www.axios.com/2023/11/16/israel-visa-waiver-palestinian-americans-us-violation.
"A U.S. official said the Biden administration will give Israel some more time to work out a solution.
But the official stressed that if Israel doesn’t find a solution within weeks, the U.S. might have to suspend Israel’s visa waiver privileges."
Thanks for the update!
Now will Biden have the guts to suspend the program?