Israelis born in any of the seven Muslim countries named in U.S. Donald Trump's executive order banning their citizens from entering the United States will not be affected by the ban, the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv said in an explanatory message posted on its website Tuesday. In its first statement on the matter, the embassy made it clear that Israelis in possession of valid U.S. visas will be permitted to travel to the U.S. as long as they do not also hold valid passports from the countries named in the executive order: Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Iran, Somalia, or Sudan. The embassy also said it would continue to process visa requests from Israeli citizens born in those countries. The executive order has worried hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens born in the "banned" countries, who feared they would not be allowed into the U.S. to visit, work, or study. The Foreign Ministry contacted the embassy, which checked the matter with the State Department before publishing its answer. On Monday, Trump fired acting Attorney General Sally Yates after she took the extraordinarily rare step of defying the White House and refused to defend the new travel restrictions, which prompted protests and chaos at airports on the weekend as customs officials struggled to put the order into effect. Yates said late on Monday that the Justice Department would not defend the order against court challenges, saying that she did not believe it would be "consistent with this institution's solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what is right." Hours later, she was fired. The White House said Yates "betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States." Fallout from the executive order, issued Friday, spread to U.S. markets on Monday, where stocks suffered their biggest drop of 2017 and companies affected by the change spoke out against it.
Israelis born in Muslim countries will not be affected by U.S. ban
U.S. Embassy clarifies: Israelis born in countries whose citizens are banned from entering the U.S. under President Donald Trump's executive order will be allowed into the U.S. as long as they do not hold valid passports for the banned countries.
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