Minister of Interior Meir Sheetrit met with U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff and Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte Thursday, and discussed the possibility of waiving the visa requirement for Israelis entering the United States. Israel would see such a change as a diplomatic achievement.
The Americans said fake Israeli passports are already in use among criminal and terror elements.
The three decided that Israeli and American teams would meet after the holidays to make the necessary arrangements for cancellation of the visa requirement, according to the News1 website.
The major American condition for allowing Israelis into the U.S. without visas is that they be issued biometric passports. The Americans said Israeli passports are easy to forge at present, and are already in use among criminal and terror elements interested in entering the U.S.
Held up in the Knesset
While the Israeli government has already decided to issue Israeli citizens biometric passports, it is now up to the Knesset to pass a law requiring the citizens to do so. This legislative process may take a long time, in the current instable Knesset.
Biometric passports are already in use by 27 countries worldwide. Electronic chips embedded in the passport contain information about the bearer's face, fingerprints and retina scans.
Yehuda HaKohen of the Zionist Freedom Alliance opposes the move. HaKohen expresses concern that that use of biometrics in Israeli passports could potentially result in a serious abuse of civil liberties:"The corruption and post-Zionism that has plagued our political echelons for the last 15 years makes the notion of inserting biometric technology into our documents very frightening. This technology has been criticized all over the world as a major step towards totalitarianism. How do we know that this technology, once in all of our passports, will not be exploited by the government against political opponents?"