WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Anti-Defamation League is seeking Americans born in Jerusalem to back a Supreme Court challenge to the U.S. policy preventing such citizens from listing Israel as their country of birth.
"Americans born in Jerusalem, or American parents of minors born in Jerusalem, are invited to join the new ad hoc Association of Proud Americans Born in Jerusalem, Israel," said an ADL statement issued Wednesday. "As part of the effort, a web site has been created at www.borninjerusalem.org where U.S. citizens born in Jerusalem can register and learn more about the case, and supporters can take action to make their voices heard."
The Supreme Court is hearing the case, Zivotofsky v. Clinton, during the next session, apparently in a bid to settle vexing questions of whether Congress or the executive branch have supremacy on some foreign policy issues.
Congress in 2002 passed a law that would allow Jerusalem-born Americans to list "Israel" as their birth country, but President George W. Bush and President Obama have refused to allow it, citing the sensitive and unsettled status of the city. Instead, such citizens are listed only as born in "Jerusalem".
The ADL says it will soon file a friend of the court brief in the case.
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