Itongadol.- Court to decide whether "Israel" can appear on passports of Americans born in Jerusalem.
The US Supreme Court is expected on Monday to make its final historic decision on whether Americans born in Jerusalem can have "Israel" written on their passports as their place of birth.
The case, Zivotofsky v. Kerry, has been winding through the US courts for years with major setback decisions followed by unexpected decisions putting the case back on track.
The policy of the US, both under Republican and Democratic presidents, since the founding of the State of Israel has been that passports of Americans born in Jerusalem will read merely "Jerusalem" as place of birth, not "Israel."
The basis of the policy has been to avoid taking sides in the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict over the status of Jerusalem, including the various competing claims – this despite the state\’s annexation of Jerusalem decades ago.
But in 2002, the US Congress passed the Foreign Relations Authorization Act which require the US government to place "Jerusalem, Israel" as the place of birth for Jerusalem-born US citizens.