U.S. Supreme Court closely divided on Jerusalem passport case

The U.S supreme Court was divided on wether American Jews born in Jerusalem should list "Israel" as their birth country. In 2002 The congress passed a law of allowing American Jews list "Israel" as their birthplace on passports if they were born in Jerusalem, but the government never enforced it. The parents of a Jerusalem-born 12-year-old boy, U.S. citizen Menachem Zivotofsky are fighting through a long court battle to state that their son was born in Israel.

Jerusalem is considered holy to three major religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam; also, both Palestinians and Israelis claim the city as their capital however, neither claim is recognized internationally. Jerusalem is now controlled by the Israeli government, but in 2012, Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, proposed an establishment of an independent Palestinian state to the UN. 135 countries recognized the Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and therefore the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 58/292 affirmed that " the Palestinian people have the right to sovereignty over East Jerusalem".


On one hand, Israelis claim that they are the chosen people and god gave them this land so they have a right to be in, live in and control Jerusalem and as a result in 1948 they established the state of Israel on the Palestinian territories and stated Jerusalem as their capital and had control over it since then. On the other hand, Palestinians are not giving up their right of having power over their own land by asking for a capital in East Jerusalem but rather trying their best to keep their hands on what really belongs to them in a sensible way since the Israeli side refuses to give Palestinians back what was stolen from them including the holy land of Jerusalem and therefore are forcing Palestinians out of Jerusalem and not allowing them to enter or cross borders and checkpoints.


The Fight over the land has been going on for almost 67 years now and therefore neither the Zivotofsky family nor the American Supreme court could do anything about it because it is not their fight. The supreme court and the american congress have no right to allow American- Jews born in Jerusalem to put "Israel" as their birth country and not allow Jerusalem -born U.S. citizens from Palestinian Heritage to put "Palestine" on their passports as well. If this law passes then this means that the U.S. is simply giving Israelis the land of Jerusalem and they have no right to do so and if it is in the congress power to pass and enforce such laws what is the point of having UN resolutions ? If this law passes this means the U.S. is taking the Israeli side in this conflict and therefore it'll be fair to say that this will become a Palestine - Israeli American conflict.

Lastly, It'll not be surprising at all if the U.S. Supreme Court passes this law and allow the family to state Israel on their son's passport, where it wasn't surprising at all when the U.S. raised the VETO card against the establishment of the Palestinian State; however, Palestinians will fight till the last drop of blood in their bodies even if that means fighting against their rights in International Courts.

See story at : http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/1.624444