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April 8, 2005
Passports are being recalled
Government of Canada doesn't recognize Jerusalem as being in Israel.
PAT JOHNSON
Eyal Lichtmann's Canadian passport says he was born in Jerusalem,
Israel, but the government of Canada wants his passport back so
they can erase "Israel" from the page.
Lichtmann, who is the director of Hillel Vancouver, received a letter
from the passport office urging him to return his passport to have
a new one issued. Though the letter did not specify the exact reason
for the request, Lichtmann said he knew what it was about. He had
heard that other Canadians with Jerusalem on their passports as
a birthplace were being contacted by the government.
The reason, according to government officials, is that Canada doesn't
recognize Jerusalem as a city in Israel and that the passports were
issued in error.
"It hasn't been a problem since I've had it the past four-and-a-half
years," said Lichtmann. The letter was very accommodating,
he said, noting that the passport office offered to provide a replacement
passport free of charge, to pay for the pictures required and incidental
fees like parking or taxi fares associated with the replacement
of the passport. Nor does the application require the signature
of a professional, as is conventionally required for passport applications.
The matter upset Lichtmann, who noted that the place he was born
– west Jerusalem – has never been in dispute.
"The place that I was born was western Jerusalem," he
said. "It was never in dispute. I was born in western Jerusalem,
pre-1967 [the year of the Six Days War, when city boundaries were
changed]."
Lichtmann has yet to respond to the letter and said he is waiting
for the results of a court case pending over the issue in Ontario.
But he questions the government's motives for recalling the passports.
"I'm hurt that the Canadian government – either somebody
in the bureaucracy or somebody in the political echelons –
has taken this step," Lichtmann said. "It's extremely
symbolic and that's what really, really gets me. I'm hurt, as a
Canadian, that somebody in the bureaucracy can do something like
this and that there aren't safeguards in place to stop this sort
of thing from happening."
Dan Kingsbury, a spokesperson for Passport Canada, said the recall
is a routine correction of an administrative error.
"There were a certain number of Canadians who may have received
a passport that includes the notation, 'Jerusalem, Israel,' "
Kingsbury told the Bulletin. "What we are doing is correcting
this administrative error. We made an administrative error, so what
we have decided to do is contact those people or we're asking them
to contact us. We are replacing their passport free of charge."
The reason, he said, is to bring the passports into line with Canadian
policy regarding Jerusalem.
"The government of Canada considers that the status of Jerusalem,
as it stands, can be resolved only as part of a general settlement
of the Arab-Israeli conflict," Kingsbury said, "so consequently,
neither 'Jerusalem, Israel' nor 'Jerusalem, Palestine' can be inscribed
in place of birth on Canadian passports."
Kingsbury could not say how many Canadians might be affected by
the recall and would not say who in the government ordered the change.
He would not comment on the controversy that has arisen over the
passport issue.
"I'm not aware of any comments or concerns so I can't really
comment on that," he said.
Pat Johnson is a B.C. journalist and commentator.
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