Legal Commentary

U.S. Denying Entry Visas to People Who Work on Israel?s Dimona Nuclear Reactor?

By Eugene Volokh

JoshuaPundit (Rob Miller) reports, based on an article in NRG/Maariv, a site connected with Israel?s Maariv newspaper:

NRG/Maariv (Hebrew link only, sorry) reported today that the Israeli government was stunned when every nuclear technician at Israel?s Dimona reactor who had submitted visa requests to visit the United States for ongoing university education in Physics, Chemistry and Nuclear Engineering had their visa applications summarily rejected, specifically because of their association with the Dimona reactor.

This is a new policy decision of the Obama administration. Up until now, it was routine for Israeli nuclear scientists and technicians to receive such visas and to study at US universities.

Israeli security officials have confirmed that these technicians are being denied visas solely because of their employment at the Dimona reactor....

So says the post; I can?t read Hebrew, so I can?t check the original for myself, and can?t tell if there are important errors or omissions in the translation. (The ??? in the headline is not rhetorical; I?m always skeptical of translations, especially when I don?t know anything about the translator.) I therefore wanted to ask those readers who can read Hebrew to pass along their thoughts. And of course if you know something about the controversy and have reason to doubt ? or trust ? the accuracy of the original, please mention that as well; naturally, errors happen not only in translations but also in original reports.

Naturally, if there are indeed important errors or omissions, I would certainly note them in the post. I stress again that I?m passing this along in order to check the information, not because I have any personal confidence in its accuracy.

UPDATE: Roger L. Simon (Pajamas Media) offers a translation of the Maariv article.