Congregation Ohav Sholom

The Israel Experience - Nationless City?

The Israel Experience - Nationless City?

by Michael Rosenbloom (spidermr@aol.com)

While living in Beit Shemesh, I began dating my future wife, Rachel, who lived in Rishon LeZion. Our romance continued when I moved to Jerusalem, in 1980. We wed in 1981 and leased a small apartment in the Rechavya section of Jerusalem. Rechavya is a neighborhood with quaint narrow streets, practically in the city center but with a feel far removed from the hustle and bustle of downtown.

Our oldest child Bilha was born in Jerusalem, in the Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus. My wife still speaks of the hospital in glowing terms and refers to it as a five star hotel.

Between the years 1948 and 1967, Mt. Scopus, where the Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital are located, was like an island in the midst of hostile territory. When cease fire lines were drawn in Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus was a Jewish sovereign enclave inside Arab East Jerusalem. From 1948 until 1967, a U.N. armed convoy was allowed to bring supplies weekly, to Mt. Scopus. After the city was united in 1967, Mt. Scopus could finally breathe easily and expand its lungs. A massive building project was undertaken at the University and the hospital was rebuilt and thoroughly modernized. The hospital soon boasted the most modern facilities in the country and the highest level of care.

As if that weren't enough, the view onto the Judean desert from Rachel's hospital room was absolutely breathtaking, suitable more to a queen's palace than a hospital. Several months after Bilha's birth, we decided to register her birth with the American government and apply for a U.S. passport simultaneously.

The registration of my daughter as an American soon became a lesson in American foreign policy. In Jerusalem, foreign births were to be registered in the American consulate because the United States embassy was and still is situated in Tel Aviv. But Jerusalem had two consulates, one in Jewish West Jerusalem on Agron St. and one in Arab East Jersualem. The consulate on Agron St. at the time (and quite possibly today as well) did not provide consular services. It may have housed the American consul general or may have just been a symbolic structure, a way for the U.S. to appear even-handed in its stance on Jerusalem's eventual status. Because the consulate in West Jerusalem provided no consular services, we were obliged to register Bilha at the consulate in Arab East Jerusalem.

We completed the necessary forms for registering the birth of a child of an American citizen abroad. On the form, for "place of birth," (hospital, city and country), I listed innocently enough, "Hadasah Hospital Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel." As you may be aware, the United States, like most countries, has a policy of employing locals in its consulates and embassies. The man who handled my application, was an Arab. Without hesitation, he crossed out Israel on the "place of birth" line on the application. It was and still is U.S. policy that Jerusalem's final status will be determined in negotiations. It was the not-so-hidden glee with which the consular clerk crossed out the name "Israel" which has stuck in my craw all these years. And sure enough, when Bilha's passport was eventually issued, under "place of birth" the passport listed merely Jerusalem as her place of birth, as if Jerusalem were a nationless city and not Israel's heart, soul and capitol. A copy of the relevant page of Bilha's passport (since expired) appears following this article. Please note her place of birth on the passport page. The name "Israel" is nowhere to be found.

Click on Image for Enlarged view.

I believe that not recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, not moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, providing consular services in East Jerusalem only and not recognizing my daughter's birth as having taken place in Israel is not and was not even-handedness at all. Rather all these actions or inactions clearly demonstrate the pro-Arab bias of the Arabists at the U.S. Department of State, a pro-Arab tilt which has continued to this very day.

March 2001

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