Is Jerusalem in Israel?
That's a loaded question.
Recently, a US court was asked to answer that question, and McClatchy's Mike Doyle looks at the case over at the Suits & Sentences blog.
The US has said that American citizens born in Jerusalem can ask that their passports say they were born in Jerusalem, Israel.
But President Bush declared that the language of that law is non-binding, so the issue ended up in the courts.
In the new ruling, the federal appeals court declared: "That the United States expresses no official view on the thorny issue of whether Jerusalem is part of Israel has been a central and calibrated feature of every president’s foreign policy since Harry S. Truman."
For more on the case, check out Mike's post.
Isn't the statement "That the United States expresses no official view on the thorny issue of whether Jerusalem is part of Israel has been a central and calibrated feature of every president’s foreign policy since Harry S. Truman." rather disingenuous and completely excludes whether one is talking of west J'lem, east J'lem or unified Jerusalem? It assumes the 'unified Jerusalem' which is not recognized by anyone (excluding Israel itself and Micronesia).
The official U.S. State Department position is that east Jerusalem is 'occupied territory' and west Jerusalem is part of Israel proper. Matter of fact, every other nation (with the exception of Israel and Micronesia)considers east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Syrian Golan Heights 'Occupied Territory'. This is why our embassy remains in Tel Aviv, not Jerusalem.
Three decades ago, Israel unilaterally annexed east J'lem, counter to international law concerning final status, and which no nation, including the U.S. recognizes.
I'm not a legal scholar, but it appears as though our judicial branch is copping out by not simply supporting not only our own government's current position, but international law as well. It's not the issue of final status negotiations, but where the hospital is physically located - west of the armistice or 'green' line or east. Then the language of 'Jerusalem, Israel' or 'Occupied Jerusalem' is clear.
Posted by: Edie | July 13, 2009 at 01:06 PM