The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether babies born in Jerusalem to parents who are U.S. citizens may have their birth certificates and passports list ‘Israel’ as their birthplace. The current policy is to list the place of birth as “Jerusalem” and not list Israel.
The policy of the United States has been not to recognize the sovereignty of any part of Jerusalem because of claims by both Israel and Palestinians to the city. Israel gained control of West Jerusalem in 1948 and of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in the 1967 War.
The government’s position is that by recording the birthplace of American babies born in Jerusalem as “Israel” it will challenge long-standing U.S. foreign policy concerning the recognition of sovereignty over Jerusalem. The State Department’s argument to the Court is that any action seen as altering U.S. policy toward Jerusalem could affect its role as a mediator in negotiations to resolve the Israeli-Arab conflict.
The parents of the child born in Jerusalem maintain that Congress has passed a law allowing birth certificates and passports of U.S. citizens born in Jerusalem to record “Israel” as their place of birth. The State Department argues that only the President, not Congress, has the power to recognize the sovereignty of any foreign area.
The parents cite the precedent of U.S. citizens born in Taiwan. Although the U.S. recognizes the Government of the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal government of China, it allows American passports to show Taiwan as the place of birth despite China’s opposition to this policy.
In a ten-year period there were over 52,000 passports issued that listed Jerusalem as the place of birth.
The case is Zivotofsky v. Clinton and was argued before the Supreme Court in November.
