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July 20, 2007
Passport appeal lost
Federal court still says Jerusalem not capital.
FREEMAN PORITZ
Israel made headlines in the Canadian media again last week after
the Federal Court of Appeal upheld an earlier court decision preventing
the listing of Jerusalem as the country's capital on Canadian passports.
Nineteen-year-old former Toronto resident Eliyahu Yoshua Veffer,
who is now a student at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, first
took the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT)
to court in January 2005, for refusing to allow him to list "Jerusalem,
Israel" as his birthplace on his passport. Veffer lost that
case and filed an appeal in May of this year.
A lawyer for DFAIT cited the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians
and the disputed status of Jerusalem as the reason for disallowing
the inscription "Jerusalem, Israel." Immigrants to Canada
– and most other countries – who are born in Jerusalem
are issued passports without any reference to their country of birth.
In an interview with the Independent, Canada-Israel Committee
Pacific Region director Adam Carroll downplayed the importance of
the ruling. "Obviously, we'd like for everyone to recognize
that it's Jerusalem, Israel," he said. "We would like
to see Canada move the embassy to Jerusalem and have the passport
issue solved, but they're not really high on the list of priorities
right now, when we have existential threats like Iran at our doorstep."
Close to 150 Canadian passports listing Jerusalem as part of Israel
have also been recently recalled – a move that Eyal Lichtmann,
executive director of the Vancouver Hillel Foundation, viewed as
a personal affront.
"I'm just offended," said Lichtmann in an interview. "I'm
pissed off. I have a birthplace without a country. That's the way
the Canadian government looks at it. For many, many years, I was
a citizen of Canada with Jerusalem, Israel, as my birthplace and
then they changed the policies." Lichtmann was born in Jerusalem
in 1967, before moving to Canada the following year. His passport
was recalled about a year ago, for what Passport Canada deemed a
"clerical error." It was returned to him with his city
of birth listed as Jerusalem, not Jerusalem, Israel. "I was
also born in what is considered Israel proper – on the proper
side of the UN-recognized Green Line. It's not right that Israel
is being singled out again," he added.
Veffer's lawyer, David Matas, told the Independent in a
phone interview: "[The ruling is] a matter of religious significance
to Eliyahu Veffer. To me, [it] comes very close to questioning the
sincerity of his beliefs. They say they can't question the sincerity
of his beliefs, but they question how important they are to him.
The problem is a [government] policy [whereby] people can choose
for contested territories, but then makes an exception for Jerusalem,
and only for Jerusalem. The rationale for the policy doesn't really
hold water. What I heard from the government was that if they allowed
people to make a choice, it might seem that they [the government
of Canada] were changing their policy of neutrality, even though
they weren't. Also, that it would impact on their ability to contribute
to the peace process, which I don't see how it could, because Canada
won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957, when you could put Jerusalem,
Israel on your passport. I find both, the policy rationale and the
legal rationale unpersuasive."
Matas added, "We've got 90 days [to appeal the ruling] from
the day of the judgment. Veffer is sympathetic, but I need to check
with B'nai Brith [the Jewish human rights organization with whom
Matas works] to see where they are on this. It looks likely, but
not certain."
DFAIT spokesman Rodney Moore said he was unable to comment directly
on the case for privacy reasons. However, he noted that Veffer has
until Sept. 24 to appeal the latest decision, and pointed out that
the court "found that Passport Canada's policy does not represent
an infringement on the appellant's rights under the Canadian Charter
of Rights and Freedoms.
"Canadian policy with respect to Jerusalem was established
as such because the status of Jerusalem has not been definitely
determined internationally," Moore said. "Passport Canada's
policy with respect to Jerusalem reflects the government of Canada's
Middle East policy. Canada considers that the status of Jerusalem
can be resolved only as part of a general settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli
dispute."
Michael Mendel, press officer at the Israeli embassy in Ottawa,
said, "The official Israeli position is that Jerusalem is the
capital of Israel and that hasn't changed. There's no real comment
on the actual decision, other than to reaffirm that Jerusalem is
the capital of Israel."
"When the Canadian government does not allow me to put in my
passport that I am born in Jerusalem, Israel, they are denying me
the truth of who I am," Veffer wrote in an affidavit filed
in the federal court. Veffer later told the Independent in
a phone interview, "We're definitely going to see what we can
do to take further action [in the case]." He said a favorable
decision would get the world to step in the direction of recognizing
that Jerusalem really is Israel. "The idea is to get people
to start realizing that Jerusalem is, and always was, a part of
Israel."
Freeman Poritz is a Vancouver freelance writer.
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