Jewish Montrealer pushes back when passport officials tell her Israel can’t be named as her birth country
A Jewish Montreal woman says she was told by a Canadian passport office employee that she could not indicate Israel as her country of birth because it is “a conflict zone.”
Anastasia Zorchinsky is a Canadian citizen but she was born in Kfar Saba, in central Israel. However, she says in a Nov. 13 video posted on X that the official told her because of the “political conflict we cannot put Israel in your passport.”
Alternatively, she was told she could have indicated her birth country as Palestine, and that Kfar Saba was one of several cities that was allegedly caught by this policy shift, including Jerusalem.
Moreover, Zorchinsky was told this was a country-specific restriction – only affecting Israel.
Doubting what she was told, Zorchinsky told National Post in an interview, she asked to see the policy supporting the official’s assertion. Then, she says, the employee went away and came back with a few colleagues who told her this change came about because Canada has recognized a state of Palestine.
She was also told there was an online list of the cities caught by the policy change.
Zorchinsky asked for a policy document that laid out the officials’ assertion. They provided nothing.
“She (the passport employee) just said this without any support, no policy document. It was clear something was off.”
Ultimately, the passport officials backed down and told her it was okay to designate Israel as her birth country.
“If I had just submitted my application, who knows what would have happened?” she asserts. “It’s clear discrimination.”
“Why should people have to suffer the indignity of having to beg?” says Zorchinsky’s lawyer, Neil Oberman. While his client pushed back, he suggests many people would be reluctant to do so.
Jewish Canadians, he says, “shouldn’t have to deal with this. Issues of politics shouldn’t bleed into dealing with a government agency when it comes to a document for identification.”
Contrary to Zorchinsky’s experience, a communications advisor for of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Jeffrey MacDonald, wrote in an email to NP that “(n)o changes have been made regarding the issuing of passports for individuals born in Israel.”
MacDonald went on to say that while the department “cannot comment on specific cases due to privacy considerations, we can confirm that the city of Kfar Saba can be printed in Canadian travel documents with Israel as the country of birth.”
Meanwhile, Oberman has written the passport office, its Service Canada headquarters and Lena Diab, the federal minister for IRCC.
The Nov. 12 letter, posted on social media, recounts his client’s experience and demands the policy documents which are the basis for the comments made by Montreal passport officials.
He also points to a training concern among the passport office employees that his client encountered. He writes that clearly the staff “did not understand the governing policy were unable to articulate or apply a legally grounded standard.”
The letter also requests training materials related to the country of birth designation, as well as written assurance that “political considerations” do not drive passport identity details.
Oberman requested a response by Nov. 18. Failing that, he states a complaint may be filed to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, the federal ombudsperson and possibly to the Federal Court.
“If there is some sort of injustice,” Zorchinsky said, “you have to stand up, speak up.” She says she doesn’t want this to happen to anyone else, no matter where they were born.
On X, the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs said it had contacted the federal government to address the “unacceptable” thing that happened to Zorchinsky.
“Not only for this individual, but for all Canadians accessing government services.”
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