Meanwhile, in Canada…

Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel here, either.

A federal policy that bans Canadians from listing Jerusalem, Israel, as their birthplace on their passports does not violate the Charter of Rights, the Federal Court of Appeal said Tuesday.

The ruling came in the context of a three-judge panel decision that the Canadian government was not required to allow 19-year-old Eliyahu Veffer, the son of a Toronto rabbi, to amend his passport to indicate that his birthplace, Jerusalem, was part of Israel.

The Canadian National Post reported that the decision upheld a 2006 court ruling that Canada’s passport policy was neither discriminatory nor a violation of religious freedom, despite the fact that Israel was the only exception to a practice of letting passport applicants list their birth country of choice when dealing with cities in disputed territories.

The federal government, citing the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians over the control of Jerusalem, insisted that immigrants who were born there are issued passports without any reference to a country. — Jerusalem Post (my emphasis)

The fact that only the eastern part of the city is outside the 1967 borders of Israel is ignored.

They also apparently do not admit that the annexation of Jerusalem, which included an offer of full citizenship to all residents and which took place after a war the Arabs started and lost, was legitimate.

Perhaps they are using the Hamas definition of occupied territory, which includes Tel Aviv? In this case, no Canadian should have ‘Israel’ listed as their birthplace.

Since the Parti Québécois disputes the proposition that Montreal, for example, is part of Canada, should passports list “Montreal, Canada”?

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