The administration’s “position on the neutrality of Jerusalem remains clear,” State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said Monday. When asked whether that applied to both the western and eastern areas of the city that Israel considers its capital, he added that he had “no change to our policy to announce.”
Rathke was reacting to a Supreme Court decision whose effect is to uphold the executive branch’s right to refuse to include the word “Israel” on the passports of American citizens born in Jerusalem.
The court in a 6-3 decision struck down a 2002 law that directed the secretary of state to allow the word “Israel” to appear on passports of those Jerusalem-born U.S. citizens who request it. The majority said the Constitution grants the president the exclusive power to recognize foreign nations and governments.
Responding to the decision, Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat said, “Just like the U.S. capital is Washington, London is the capital of England, and France’s capital is Paris, Jerusalem was and will always be the capital of Israel, but more importantly the heart and soul of the Jewish people…. I call on President Obama to publicly declare what has been known for generations, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and Israel is the home of the Jewish people.”
While east Jerusalem’s status is hotly disputed, Israel’s claim to parts of the city west of the 1949 armistice lines is generally not.
The case before the Supreme Court involved a young American, Menachem Zivotofsky, who was born in a hospital in west Jerusalem, and whose parents sought without success to have “Israel” given as place of birth on his passport.
“The court’s decision in Zivotofsky v. Kerry today confirms the long-established authority of the president over the conduct of diplomacy and foreign policy,” Rathke said. “The decision also respects his ability to ensure that his determinations regarding recognition are accurately reflected in official documents and diplomatic communications, including in passports.”
Rathke said the court ruling “helps ensure that our position on the neutrality of Jerusalem remains clear.”
Asked whether that applied to both west and east Jerusalem, he replied, “Again, no change to our policy to announce.”
“But I mean the contested part of Jerusalem is just the east part,” a reporter pressed. “Not even the Palestinians claim the west part.” (Some Palestinians do claim the entire city, and indeed all of present-day Israel.)
“I’ve got no change to our policy to announce,” Rathke repeated.
Asked whether the U.S. has no position on the sovereignty of the entire city, he said, “Our consistent policy is we recognize no state as having sovereignty over Jerusalem.”
“All of Jerusalem?”
“I don’t have a – I didn’t put a modifier in front it.”
Israel reunited the divided city in the 1967 Six Day War – ending a 19 year-old Jordanian occupation of the eastern portion – and declared the whole city its “eternal, indivisible” capital. The Palestinian Authority wants Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state.
The Obama administration, like its predecessors, does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over any part of the city and says its future status remains to be determined in a negotiated peace settlement.
In line with that, the State Department policy is that “U.S. citizens born in Jerusalem may not have ‘Israel’ listed in their passports as their place of birth.”
When Congress passed the law in 2002 – a provision in the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for fiscal year 2003 – President George W. Bush in a “signing statement” overrode the passport requirement, arguing that it “impermissibly interferes with the president’s constitutional authority to conduct the nation’s foreign affairs.”