The US ambassador to Israel, Thomas Nides, said on Wednesday that the US expects Israel, under a visa-waiver deal discussed between the allies, to enable free passage for Palestinian-Americans into the occupied West Bank.
The West Bank saw an upsurge in violence over the past year and is among the territories where Palestinians seek statehood. Israel established various security barriers and checkpoints in the West Bank and conducted military patrols.
"We have to be clear about reciprocity. Reciprocity will mean that Palestinian-Americans will be able to travel from Detroit to Ben-Gurion to Ramallah freely," Nides told Ynet Radio.
"And Americans who live in Ramallah will be able to go from Ramallah to Ben-Gurion back to Detroit," the ambassador said.
"When we get all those pieces working together, hopefully, then Israelis will not have to stand in line ever again to get a tourist visa – a visa to come to the United States."
Nides did not mention any arrangements for travel to the Gaza Strip, which Israel withdrew from in 2005 and is now controlled by Hamas, which the West blacklisted as a terrorist group.
Asked if Israel was preparing special provisions for Palestinian-Americans to pass through its West Bank, an army spokesman said, "We have nothing new to relay."
The Arab American Institute Foundation estimated the number of Palestinian-descended Americans at between 122,500 and 220,000. The Foundation indicated these estimates are based in part on US census data.
The Office of Palestinian Affairs at the US Embassy in Jerusalem did not respond to a Reuters request to disclose the number of Americans of Palestinian origin in the West Bank.
A few hundred Palestinian Americans live in Gaza, according to anecdotal accounts that Reuters could not immediately verify.
