Professor Marshall Breger of Catholic Law, published an op-ed in the fall 2023 issue of Moment on the creation of the U.S. visa waiver program and its application to Israel. The visa waiver program allows citizens of more than 40 countries to enter the United states for 90 days with out a visa. Countries such as England, France, Finland, and even Croatia participate. Israel did not. And a priority goal of the the Netanyahu government was to get Israel into the program. 

Among other things, entry into the program required reciprocity–that is to say US citizens (including Palestinian Americans) will receive the same treatment entering Israel as Israelis entering the United States. And that had not been happening. Making a big push to enter the program this year, Israel agreed to a pilot program that would remedy the situation. Many in Israel did not like the idea for security reasons.

The Arab American community viewed entry into the program as a “win” for Israel and did not believe the promise of equal treatment. Nonetheless the Biden administration found that Israel had met the program requirements and placed it into the program this past October.

In the op-ed Breger lays out the requirements of the program and the pros and cons of Israel’s participation. More importantly he underscores his view that the United States must ensure that that all U.S. passport holders are treated equally before a country can enter the visa waiver program. And while Israel has a right to discriminate among American passport holders for its own security determinations, it does not have a right for its citizens to participate in the program if it does so. In the past few weeks however, due to the conflict in Gaza, Palestinians have again faced problems entering Israel – particularly from the West Bank. The U.S. states it is addressing the problem.  

Breger teaches courses in Pubic International Law; Legal Issues of the Middle East Peace Process and a seminar on legal issues of Jerusalem at the Catholic university law school His most recent book, The Contest and Control of Jerusalem's Holy Sites, was published this Fall by the Cambridge University Press.

A copy of the op-ed is available here.