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Post-army travelers or Dead Sea scammers? US at odds over Israeli visas
Ron Kampeas, JTA, Mar 19 2014

The battle between Congress critturs and the State Dept over tourist visas for Israelis features two competing archetypes of the young Israeli traveler. The critturs paint a picture of a world traveler, matured by service to country, who deserves a break from the stresses of the Middle East. US consular officials, meanwhile, have warned of lawbreakers hawking dubious Dead Sea beauty products in malls and at rest stops. The debate surfaced publicly with a Mar 6 letter from Senator Chuck Schumer to Jackass Kerry and James Ragsdale, the acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In his letter, Schumer expressed concern about a recent spike in the proportion of Israelis being denied visas to visit the US. Prior to Schumer sending his letter, AIPAC had been raising the issue of visa denials on Capitol Hill. Marshall Wittmann, AIPAC’s spokesman, told JTA:

We are concerned about the issues that have been raised about the treatment of visas, and we will be working with the administration and Congress to address them.

In addition, AIPAC has been backing a broader legislative effort to get Israel into the US visa waiver program, which allows travelers from designated countries to visit the US without a visa. One of the principal obstacles to joining the visa waiver program has been Israel’s inability to consistently score below 3% on the visa refusals rate, a requirement for countries seeking to join the program. An AIPAC-backed bill on enhancing the USrael relationship that was introduced a year ago is stalled in the Senate in part because it would waive the 3% requirement. The corresponding bill in the House would not waive the requirement, and this month passed overwhelmingly. For years, Israel had hovered around the 6% mark. In 2012, its rate of refusal was at 5.4%. In 2013, it rose to 9.7%. Israel was not the only country to see such a spike. Hungary soared from 17% to 31.6% and South Korea shot up from 13% to 18.1%, but Schumer in his letter blamed State Dept preconceptions about young Israeli travelers. Schumer wrote:

After receiving inquiries from several constituents, my staff contacted your legislative affairs staff and learned that our consulates apparently have a policy to presumptively deny all tourist visa applications for young Israeli nationals who wish to visit the US during the period in between the completion of their military service and the resumption of their university education. When my staff asked your staff why this arbitrary policy toward Israel was in place, we were informed that the State Dept is concerned that these young Israeli nationals were going to violate the terms of their visas by, for example, selling Dead Sea cosmetics at shopping malls across the US.

US officials say consular officials are simply abiding by the law, which mandates that applicants for tourist visas are presumed to be potential violators of visa terms until they can prove otherwise. Pooja Jhunjhunwala, a State Dept official, told The Hill on Mar 12:

When any individual makes a US visa application anywhere in the world, a consular officer reviews the facts of the case and makes a determination of eligibility based on US law.

The State Dept did not reply to multiple JTA requests for comment. Jackass was asked about the issue at a Mar 13 hearing of the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, denied there was a policy to keep out the young Israelis. Replying to a query from Ted Deutch, Jackass said:

Last year over 100,000 visas of all ages were issued. 20,000 were issued to Israelis aged 21 to 30 in each of the last fiscal years. Issuance rate is about 83%, which is not different from other folks in other places.

Grace Meng told JTA in an interview:

Those numbers were not representative. Jackass was referring to overall visitor visas for Israelis aged 21-30. We want narrower data, assessing how many Israelis between 21 and 27 were specifically denied tourist visas. The fact that something like this could be happening warrants further investigation.

In addition to Deutch, Meng and Schumer, critturs pressing the administration to ease up on denials include Representatives Brad Schneider, Anna Eshoo and Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Dianne Feinstein and Lindsey Graham in the Senate. In a letter Meng sent to Jackass on Monday asking for the more detailed information, she wrote:

Many of the young Israeli applicants between military service and university studies deserve the break they are seeking through a US vacation. Such traveling is a time-honored and venerable tradition in Israel. This is the Israeli way of saying ‘Thank you for your service.’ While Israeli society asks its young adults to fight in the world’s most dangerous places, it also affords them the opportunity to heal from the wounds of war and become citizens of the world.

Schumer said in a statement:

This policy is denying the US tourist dollars. Let’s punish the wrongdoers instead of making it impossible for young Israelis to come see our beautiful sites, eat in our restaurants, stay in our hotels, and support all the jobs related to those activities. It makes no sense to deny tourist visas to all young Israelis simply because of the actions of a few.

US diplomats and consular officials have markedly different views of the typical young Israeli traveler. A lengthy 2010 cable from the US Embassy in Tel Aviv that was released by WikiLeaks said:

It is culturally acceptable for post-army Israelis to work illegally in the US. Key parts of the Dead Sea industry have been able to base a large part of their business models upon the employment of illegal workers.

The phenomenon has become the main focus of the embassy’s fraud detection unit, the cable says, adding that officials suspect the numbers of Israelis illegally peddling the products in the US are in the thousands. The cable describes reports of organized crime ties to the industry, saying that some of those working illegally have reported abuse, threats and extortion while on the job in the United States. Some of the products, the cable alleges, are not from the Dead Sea at all but likely originate in China or Central America. The cable writer acknowledges that the breadth of the problem is inhibiting legitimate travel by post-army Israelis as well as Israel’s quest to join the visa waiver program. The cable says:

Aside from the criminal aspects of this fraud, a key implication is the increased visa revocation/refusal and denial of entry rates for post-army Israelis, which among other things, complicate Israel’s high-profile desire to join the Visa Waiver Program.

The embassy runs PR campaigns discouraging Israelis from misusing tourist visas to work illegally. A video on its website titled “The Price is Too High” and posted in 2011 outlines consequences for traveling under false pretenses, including being banned from the US from between 5 years to life. Many of the online commenters on the video were sympathetic to the embassy’s pitch. Sehara97 wrote in Hebrew:

Good for the embassy. Because of a band of money-chasing ne’er-do-wells, every Israeli has to suffer a grueling visa application process.

One woman, a doctoral student in biology at HUJI who asked not to be named in order not to jeopardize future travel to the US, told JTA:

I and others who encountered obstacles in applying for visas understand that much of the blame lies with the Dead Sea scammers. Those are the people giving all of us a hard time. We hate them as well. Because of those people all younger Israelis are getting a hard time. I got a visa to attend an academic conference in the US only at the last minute. Some of my colleagues were not so fortunate. I believe increasing numbers of students in the sciences are choosing to attend seminars and conferences in Europe rather than the US. Among the inhibiting factors is the non-refundable $160 fee for a visa application, and the lengthy application process for Israelis in the sciences. As they say on the embassy website, Israelis who work or study scientific and technical fields must detail their work and study background, list other countries visited over the past 10 years and provide a detailed itinerary. It warns that approval will take longer. It does not explain why the extra materials are needed. They have something against science people. We are considered a threat to the US. The experience has decided me against further travel to the US. I don’t want to do this again and again, year after year.

2 Comments

  1. lobro
    Posted March 19, 2014 at 12:56 pm | Permalink

    This policy is denying the US tourist dollars

    schumer, as always is right.
    imagine the economic catastrophe if the us and israel mutually embargoed each other.
    clearly the us taxpayer transfers to israel pale beside israel tourist dollars.

    bravo schumer, the great american patriot, speaking truth to power.
    and if she (samantha [power) does not instantly comply, he will publish her upskirt pics.
    i am gagging already.

  2. lobro
    Posted March 19, 2014 at 1:11 pm | Permalink

    in dec i flew from cancun to havana with a small young girl beside me, we chatted, she said she was israeli after the idf stint (didn’t ask any uncomfortable questions).
    she said she was going to havana “on business”.
    before that,she was in argentina.
    “on business”.
    before that, had some business in philadelphia, heading back there after cuba.
    said she was born in israel, had some accent.
    asked her if she had trouble obtaining a working visa in the us.
    none at all, she said.
    business must be good.

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