The United States has issued the first passport to a Jerusalem-born American who mentions Israel as his birthplace, a political replacement for Donald Trump who has been convicted by the Palestinians and will like the American president’s pro-Israeli base until next week.
U. S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, Menachem Zivotofsky’s 18-year-old passport on Friday.
“You have a country in the state of Israel,” Friedman told the teenager, thanking Trump for “setting that course. “
Trump has taken a decidedly pro-Israel stance since taking office, seeing Jerusalem as israel’s capital in 2017 and moving the U. S. embassy to the city a year later, despite protests from Palestinians and human rights groups.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, criticized Friday’s replacement in U. S. passport policy as a violation of the law and resolutions.
“Trump’s attempts to impose facts on the ground in a race opposite the time before the US election will replace reality,” Abu Rudeineh told reuters news agency.
Palestinians and human rights teams have accused Israel of following a policy of “Judaization” in East Jerusalem that includes the widespread demolition of Palestinian houses [File: Ammar Awad/ Reuters] The prestige of Jerusalem, which is a sacred place for Muslims, Jews and Christians, is one of the most questionable problems of the Israel-Palestine confrontation.
Israel conquered the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, adding East Jerusalem, the 1967 Middle East War, and continues to occupy those Palestinian territories.
The Palestinian Authority needs East Jerusalem to be the capital of a long-term Palestinian state.
Palestinian rights teams and foreign observers have long denounced the Israeli crusade of “Judaization” in the city, adding the structure of Jewish settlements and the demolition of Palestinian homes.
Trump’s attempts to impose facts on the floor in a race opposite the time before the U. S. election may not replace reality.
Since israel’s founding in 1948, successive U. S. governments have refused to recognize that a country has sovereignty over Jerusalem, and the policy of the U. S. State Department was in the past to mention only the city as a birthright in passports.
On Thursday, reflecting the Trump administration’s policies on Jerusalem, U. S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the passport change.
Jerusalem-born Americans can now Jerusalem or Israel as their birthright, an embassy official confirmed.
Zivotofsky’s had long campaigned for such a change, having filed a lawsuit in 2003 in US federal court. But it’s not the first time
In 2015, the U. S. Supreme Court overdulled a law that would have allowed Jerusalem-born U. S. citizens to designate Israel as their country of birth, illegally interfering with presidential powers to outline foreign policy.
The leadership of Trump’s predecessor, President Barack Obama, argued that if the law were enforced, it would cause “irreversible harm” to America’s ability to influence the Middle East peace process. Israeli-Palestinian negotiations failed in 2014.
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