'Israel' erased from Canadian passports
Citizens born in Jerusalem told to surrender documents specifying birthplace

March 15, 2005

Under a new passport policy in Canada, ''Israel" cannot be specified as the country of birth for Canadian citizens born in Jerusalem.

Canadian Jews are being told by their government to surrender their passports so the word "Israel" can be removed if it appears next to the name of the Jewish state's declared capital, according to a report by Israel National News.

The campaign to recall the passports comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed by B'nai Brith of Canada on behalf of a 17-year-old Toronto resident. The teen objected to the ban on declaring Israel as his birth country on his passport, arguing the policy is discriminatory because other citizens have been given valid passports with the ''Jerusalem, Israel'' classification.

''It appears that the government has begun a concerted campaign to recall the passports as a direct result of the legal action now before the courts,'' lawyer Frank Dimant, executive vice president of B'nai Brith Canada told the newspaper.

A 2004 ruling by the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. mirrors the Canadian policy. The court ruled American consular offices in Israel need not register the birthplace of an American citizen born in Jerusalem as ''Jerusalem, Israel,'' but merely as ''Jerusalem.''

Judge Gladys Kessler rejected two lawsuits filed over the status of Jerusalem on passports, saying the U.S. ''does not recognize any sovereign over the city.''

SOURCE: World Net Daily