Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, March/April 2022, p. 57
Waging Peace
ISRAEL HAS recently renewed its efforts to be added to the United States Visa Waiver Program, which would allow its citizens to enter the U.S. for up to 90 days without the need to apply for a visa.
On Jan. 18, Americans for Peace Now hosted a webinar to discuss why Palestinian-American activists oppose Israel’s admittance to the program. The event featured Dr. Hanna Hanania, a dentist and activist, and comedian and actress Maysoon Zayid.
Palestinian-Americans oppose Israel joining the program on the grounds that they suffer extreme discrimination, humiliation and trauma when trying to visit Palestine. Hanania, who was born in Palestine, has a Palestinian passport which means he and his whole family are not permitted to use the Tel Aviv airport and must instead travel first to Jordan and then cross into the West Bank via a heavily trafficked bridge staffed by the Israeli border control. This process often takes several days and can leave travelers stranded overnight. Even after making it to the West Bank, these Americans are banned from accessing Jerusalem and other parts of Israel (historic Palestine), meaning they are precluded from visiting family members, beaches and holy sites.
Because Zayid, who was born in New Jersey, does not have a Palestinian passport she is allowed to fly into Tel Aviv but suffers a different kind of abuse and uncertainty. She explained how airport security singles out Palestinians, Muslims and even Sephardi Jews with “Muslim sounding names,” detains them arbitrarily, denies them access to the country after they have landed, and even holds them in jail for several days. She said she is often not allowed to travel on flights departing Tel Aviv with any carry-on luggage (such as electronics, books or medicine) except for her passport and a credit card.
Zayid and Hanania insist that these practices are discriminatory and not about security. For instance, non-Palestinian American citizens traveling to West Bank settlements are not denied access to Tel Aviv or Jerusalem and do not face similar discrimination and abuse. Zayid, who is a well-known celebrity, said she is proof that the border policies are not about security. “It’s 100 percent clear that I am not a security threat” she explained. Yet, “they have literally been stripping me since I’m five years old. I remember being five years old and having to take off my pantyhose and having cerebral palsy and not being able to put them back on.”
Hanania described how even those who are not politically active are targeted by Israeli border agents. “Palestinian-Americans who have never been there, who are not involved in the issue and so on, seem to be harassed the most…in a way telling them ‘don’t come back again,’” he said.
Fear of humiliation, discrimination and of being denied access to Palestine keeps many Palestinian-Americans from speaking out against Israel and organizing in the United States. Zayid explained that she doesn’t use her platform to be vocal about the BDS movement, “because I want to visit my father’s grave.”
As the event wrapped up, the moderator pointed out that Israel is a sovereign nation that is allowed to decide its own entry practices. Zayid acknowledged this reality as it pertains to access to the Tel Aviv airport, but added that discriminatory practices against its own citizens should not be ignored by Washington. “If they do that, then the United States of America should not reward them with the Visa Waiver Program. If your citizens are being abused by a government that chooses to have supremacist, bigoted, hateful practices… America should not be supporting that, allowing that, or turning their back to what is happening to their own citizens.”
The event ended on a note of hope. Although Zayid is convinced Israel will eventually be added to the Visa Waiver Program, Palestinians have been gaining more recognition in the media. She spoke about how Palestinian-American superstars, like Bella and Gigi Hadid, have been using their enormous platforms to speak out and bring these issues to new and younger audiences who are better at organizing and are less afraid. Zayid also added, “The conversation is louder now because we’ve made incredible, incredible connections with the Black community in the United States, the Indigenous communities worldwide who have suffered similar genocides and displacements,” as well as an influx of support from both American churches and American Jews.
—Elisabeth Johnson
