PLO leader: US Jerusalem passport decision erases Palestinians

Following the US decision to allow Americans born in Jerusalem to register their birth country as “Israel” on their passport, Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, a top Palestinian official within the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), called the move “an attempt to erase Palestinians.”

The decision stated that those who were born in Jerusalem and have a US passport may choose to put Israel as their place of birth. Before now, Jews born in Jerusalem had to put only Jerusalem and not specify a country.

“The US administration is using all tools at its disposal to erase Palestine, physically, politically, culturally and figuratively,” Ashrawi said, claiming that this is the way both the Israeli and US governments work together to distort facts before the US election.

“By adopting this measure, the US administration is also retroactively recognizing other illegal Israeli actions, including the ethnic cleansing of West Jerusalem and the grand theft of Palestinian property,” Ashrawi continued.

She said the US administration has a plan to “formalize permanent apartheid and its campaign of Arab normalization through bribes, blackmail, and intimidation… Jerusalem was, is, and will remain the heart of Palestine.”