Supreme Court to decide if passports can say ‘Jerusalem, Israel’

The Supreme Court announced Monday that it would decide if U.S. passports could acknowledge Jerusalem as belonging to Israel.

The historic holy city is claimed by both Israelis and Palestinians and has been a hotly contested issue for decades.

In an effort to appear neutral, the U.S. State Department has allowed passports to list Jerusalem as a place of birth, but without a country name, Reuters reported.

Ari and Naomi Zivotofsky have been suing since 2003, seeking to change their son’s passport to say he was born in Jerusalem, Israel.

The decision to address the issue goes against the wishes of President Obama’s administration, which said in court papers that taking sides “critically compromise the ability of the United States to work with Israelis, Palestinians and others in the region to further the peace process,” Reuters reported.

Oral arguments and a decision are due in the court’s next term, which begins in October and ends in June 2015.

Spokesman Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations weighed in with the New York Post: “We believe it would be best not to rock the boat, in terms of promotion of political agendas from the United States.”