State Dept Hypocrisy

For years, the U.S. State Department has refused to identify "Jerusalem, Israel" on the passports of Americans (mostly Jewish Americans) born there and who specifically request the designation. (Meanwhile, upon request, it has omitted or removed "Israel" from the passports of Arab-Americans born in Haifa or Tel Aviv.) State has done this because it could not stomach the thought of even tacitly acknowledging Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

A 2002 U.S. law required that State begin to identify "Jerusalem, Israel" on passports if asked to do so, but State has refused to comply. The US Court of Appeals recently refused to intervene in the matter, calling it a non-justiciable political question, according to an article in the July 19 Jerusalem Post online.

So, why do we write about this now?

Because for individuals traveling to the Palestinian Authority-administered areas only, Israel will now stamp passports with a "Palestinian Authority only" entry stamp. It's doing so for security reasons, to prevent individuals who are deemed security risks from wandering about Israel without business being there.

State, however, has deemed the new practice "unfair" to Palestinian and Arab-Americans and "not acceptable." State has told Israel it "expects all American citizens to be treated equally, regardless of their national origin or other citizenship."

It is hypocritical of State to refuse to apply this standard to its own practices, continuing to distinguish between Americans born in Jerusalem from those born in other parts of Israel and making special exceptions for Americans of Arab descent.

The Associated Press had more on the story here.