An Iranian Jewish woman has been denied the right to visit her long-estranged siblings in America by U.S. Embassy officials in Tel Aviv, who said they couldn't be sure she wouldn't choose to remain with them permanently.

 

Recently, the woman secretly made her way to Israel from Iran by way of a European country, according to a report published over the weekend in the Hebrew-language daily newspaper Yediot Achronot.

 

Following their own visit, a relative in the Jewish State who spoke Persian accompanied the woman to the U.S. Embassy to apply for a tourist visa to visit her siblings in New York for the upcoming New Year's holiday. The woman hasn't seen them in 28 years.

The officials reportedly went so far as to offer their own personal guarantee that the woman would fulfill the conditions of her visa and leave the United States on time after her visit.

 

The embassy official who interviewed the woman, however, rejected her request, saying that because there was no Persian translator at the embassy, he could not independently verify her claim that she did not intend to settle in America.

 

Determined to help, the woman's Israeli relative appealed to the Jewish Agency and the Foreign Ministry for assistance.

 

The Foreign Ministry asked the U.S. Consul General to consider the woman's request on humanitarian grounds. The officials reportedly went so far as to offer their own personal guarantee that the woman would fulfill the conditions of her visa and leave the United States on time after her visit.

 

The American embassy officials were unmoved, however.

 

In order to be granted a visa, they said doggedly, applicants must prove beyond the shadow of any doubt that they do not intend to immigrate to the United States. 

 

The personal guarantee of Israel's Foreign Ministry officials reportedly was not enough.