Home > Newsletter > September 2002

Does the INS even have a clue as to who should or should not be in the United States as a guest? While any hoodlum from Saudi Arabia can come to the United States, perhaps the most recognized physicist in the world has been barred from entry. Israeli citizen, Dr. Avshalom Elitzur of the Bar-Ilan University in Israel has been refused a visa to the United States.

In the past Dr. Elitzur has held a multi-entry visa into the United States. Indeed he has taught in the United States and there is rumor that he once held a top-secret clearance in this nation. But, the INS just now got around to discovering that he was born in Iran and did not leave that nation until the ripe old age of two. The fact that he is a Jew and an Israeli citizen doesn't seem to matter to the INS. I guess the INS thinks that all Saudi Arabs are good Arabs and anyone born in Iran, even a Jew, is a bad Arab. (None of the 9-11 killers were Iranian, by the way.)

What is really embarrassing is that Dr. Elitzur is the premier authority on quantum mechanics and was supposed to chair an international seminar on the subject at Temple University in September. At last word Temple University and the Israeli Space Agency were working to intervene on behalf of Dr. Elitzur.