"Overall, the article did a fine job outlining the US-Israel visa waiver. It is an improvement from previous coverage of this topic, where the Israeli government's treatment of Palestinian Americans and their inclusion in the waiver were barely covered."
September 25, 2023
To:
Matthew Lee, Journalist, AP
Donovan Vincent, Public Editor, Toronto Star
Josef Federman, News Director, Jerusalem, AP
Dear Matthew Lee, Donovan Vincent, and Josef Federman,
I am writing to thank you for your September 24 article, “The Biden administration is poised to allow Israeli citizens to travel to the US without a US visa.”
Overall, the article did a fine job outlining the US-Israel visa waiver. It is an improvement from previous coverage of this topic, where the Israeli government's treatment of Palestinian Americans and their inclusion in the waiver were barely covered.
I particularly appreciated this sentence in the article: “Americans with Palestinian residency documents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were largely barred from using Israel’s international airport. Instead, like other Palestinians, they were forced to travel through either Jordan or Egypt to reach their destinations.” I find that it describes well the treatment of Palestinian Americans.
Although more Palestinian voices could have been included, we appreciate that the article mentioned Palestinian American activists and their role in the decision and citations from Yousef Munayyer, the head of the Palestine-Israel Program and senior fellow at Arab Center Washington.
We hope that the Toronto Star and AP will continue to report on this subject in a complete and nuanced way.
Should you wish, you can contact me at 438-380-5410 for more information.
Sincerely,
Fatima Haidar,
Media Analyst, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East