US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Thursday that American citizens born in Jerusalem will now be able to list Israel as their place of birth on their U.S. passports, effective immediately.

“Consistent with President [Donald Trump]’s policy, I am happy to announce US citizens born in Jerusalem can now elect to list their place of birth as either ‘Jerusalem’ or ‘Israel’ on their passports,” Pompeo stated on Thursday.

The move is a departure of long-standing U.S. policy dictating that the place of birth of U.S. citizens born in Jerusalem is listed as Jerusalem and not Israel since the U.S “recognizes that Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are territories whose final status must be determined by negotiations.”

The policy instructed that “the Place of Birth for persons born in Jerusalem is Jerusalem. Do not list Israel for persons born within the current municipal borders of Jerusalem.”

This policy has been in effect until Pompeo’s announcement on Thursday, despite the fact that the U.S., on the initiative of Trump, recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017.

U.S citizens born in Jerusalem can now choose to either list Jerusalem or Israel as their place of birth. However, since passports of U.S. citizens born outside the U.S. list countries and not cities as their place of birth [unlike passports for those born in the U.S., which include cities], there won’t be a third option to list Jerusalem, Israel as a place of birth.

On Friday, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman granted Menachem Zivotofsky, 18, a U.S. passport stating his birthplace as Israel, the first such passport granted to a U.S. citizen born in Jerusalem – a highly symbolic gesture in light of the lawsuit Menachem’s parents filed against the U.S. State Department following his birth.

A great honor to present the very first passport issued to an American citizen born in Jerusalem with the place of birth designated as “Israel” to Menachem Zivotofsky, who first applied 18 years ago and litigated twice before the US Supreme Court.
Mazal Tov! pic.twitter.com/IIoOkVP3jS

— Ambassador Jack Lew (@USAmbIsrael) October 30, 2020

In 2003, Menachem’s parents, who are American citizens living in Israel, filed a lawsuit at a U.S. federal court against the U.S. State Department for not being allowed to list Israel as their son’s birthplace, claiming that in accordance with a law passed by Congress in 1995 which recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, that fact must be legally recognized on U.S. passports.

The lawsuit also claimed that the State Department must act in accordance with the Foreign Relations Authorization Act passed by Congress in 2002, which states that “for the issuance of a passport of a United States citizen born in the city of Jerusalem, the Secretary shall, upon the request of the citizen or the citizen’s legal guardian, record the place of birth as Israel.”

A federal judge threw out the case, claiming that the court cannot interfere with U.S. national foreign policy. The case moved up to the Supreme Court, which ruled that although it had the authority to hear the case, it would leave it to the lower courts to make a decision. Zivotofsky’s lawyers filed an appeal and the case was brought to the Supreme Court for a second time.

In an unprecedented ruling in 2015, the Supreme Court ruled against the Zivotofsky family, striking down a law passed by Congress, and determining that only the U.S. president has the executive power to make decisions on recognizing foreign nations.

“Put simply, the Nation must have a single policy regarding which governments are legitimate in the eyes of the United States and which are not,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority. “Recognition is a topic on which the nation must speak ‘with one voice,’ and ‘that voice must be the President’s.'”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)