The US Supreme Court has agreed to examine the question as to whether or not an American citizen born in Jerusalem can have “Israel” listed on his (or her) passport as their country of birth.
The case is being brought on behalf of Jerusalem (Israel) born, Menachem Binyamin Zivotofsky, a US citizen. Zivotofsky’s parents tried to have Israel listed as his place of birth, but the US State Department didn’t allow it.
The constitutional question is whether only the President can allow Israel to be listed, something no president has allowed to happen so far, or if Congress can pass a law that overrides the president on what is claimed to be a foreign policy issue.
Congress actually passed the law in 2002 as part of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, but it was never enforced.
As an aside, if an American child is born in Tel Aviv, the passport will say, “Israel” as the place of birth.
Strangely enough, it’s been reported that the Jerusalem Consulate did add the country name for a man born in Jerusalem before 1948, they wrote “Palestine”.
Of course that is very problematic, as there never was a state of Palestine.
At best, the correct location should have been, “British Mandate for Palestine” or even “League of Nations Occupied Turkey”.
The State Department’s and White House’s official policy has been to not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem.
Sounds very one-sided to me.
The case may be decided by June 2015.
