Arab Americans Upset by Israel Law

posted on: Jan 28, 2014

A US House of Representatives bill that would allow Israelis to enter the United States without a visa is “completely outrageous” since the “genocidal, racist, Zionist regime” denies entry for many US Muslims, an American journalist and activist in Wisconsin has told Press TV.

The House’s Foreign Affairs Committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday on legislation that would label Israel a “major strategic partner.” One provision states that Israelis should be allowed to travel to the US without a visa “when Israel satisfies the requirements for inclusion in such program.”

The legislation’s language has rankled Arab-Americans and US Muslims. Some US citizens of Arab or Muslim origin have experienced significant difficulties in entering or exiting Israel. The State Department itself warns Americans traveling to Israel that they may be denied entry without being given a reason.

“This new initiative in the House of Representatives where they’re trying to set-up visas free travel bill between the US and Israel that would allow Israel to legally discriminate against American Muslims, as well as Arabs and people critical of Israel is pretty outrageous,” said Kevin Barrett, a founding member of the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance and a co-founder of the American Muslim Political Action Committee.

“The idea that the US Congress would actually endorse this extremely racist, Zionist regime’s plan to allow non-Muslim or non-Arab Americans or Americans with political views that they like to travel to Israel and discriminate against everyone else is completely outrageous,” Barrett said.

Israel does not “allow Muslims to travel to the third holiest site in Islam and the greatest architectural monuments of Islam which is Masjid Al-Aqsa (Al-Aqsa Mosque) … and if I try to go and visit the Masjid Al-Aqsa to pay my respects to that beautiful and amazing monument, I can’t go there,” he added.

Barrett urged the ending of US aid to Israel and also ending the “illegal, illegitimate, genocidal occupation of Palestine.”

Press TV