The United States will start allowing US citizens born in Jerusalem to list Israel as their place of birth on their passports and other documents, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement on Thursday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th October, 2020) The United States will start allowing US citizens born in Jerusalem to list Israel as their place of birth on their passports and other documents, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement on Thursday.
"Effective immediately, the State Department will allow US citizens born in Jerusalem to elect to list their place of birth as "Israel," Pompeo said. "Applicants born in Jerusalem will be able to request either 'Jerusalem' or 'Israel' as their place of birth on consular documents. Those US citizens born in Jerusalem who do not specify their place of birth on applications for consular services as 'Israel' will continue to be issued documents that indicate their place of birth as 'Jerusalem.'"
Pompeo said all other guidance on listing of birth places in Israel, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, Jerusalem, and the West Bank would remain the same.
Jerusalem, which was occupied by Israel in the course of the Six-Day War in 1967, is currently a non-negotiable item for the Palestinians, as are the occupied territories in the West Bank and Jordan River Valley where Israel has been building settlements. The Israeli government, in turn, has refused to recognize Palestine as a sovereign state and deemed the expansion of its settlements legitimate, despite objections from the United Nations.
In December of 2017, US President Donald Trump announced that Washington would move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which meant that the US formally recognized Jerusalem as Israel's undivided capital. The new embassy opened half a year later, with Israel hoping that it would prompt a mass relocation of embassies to the previously tabooed city, especially on the part of the European Union.
