Western Standard - Applicant Says Passport Office Refused to List Israel as Birthplace： “Because of the Conflict”

00:00:00.000 Good morning, Western Standard viewers. My name is Jeremy Borg. Today, we're going to be talking

00:00:11.900 to Anastasia Zorchinski, an Israeli-Canadian who had her passport denied because she said she was

00:00:18.300 born in Israel, and the worker said that that was not a possibility. Hi, Anastasia.

00:00:24.800 Hi. So just to start off, would you be able to tell us a little about a little bit about what

00:00:31.200 happened? Absolutely. So recently, I became a Canadian citizen, and I decided to, of course,

00:00:37.680 get my Canadian passport. And I went this Monday to the application center to submit all of my

00:00:44.300 documents. And as you know, you have to write your birth city and also your country of birth. So I

00:00:49.880 wrote, Kfar Saba, Israel. So as I submit my documents to the lady working at the desk,

00:00:55.120 she looks at them, everything looks fine. And then she says, unfortunately, we cannot write Israel on

00:01:01.060 your passport. So I ask her, why? And she says, it's because of the political conflict. So we can

00:01:07.700 only write Kfar Saba, which is the city of birth, and we cannot write Israel on your passport.

00:01:13.280 So at that point, I'm very confused. And I try to understand how this is even true. So I asked her,

00:01:20.980 if there was any other country written as my birth country, and not Israel, would you be able to put

00:01:25.540 it there? So it's only because I said my country of birth is Israel that you cannot write it in my

00:01:30.160 passport. And she says yes. Then I asked her to show me the policy where it says that because I really

00:01:35.540 doubted that it was a true policy. And she comes back after five minutes with another colleague. And her

00:01:42.080 colleague tells me that actually, since Kfar Saba is in Israel, we can write Israel on your

00:01:49.620 passport. However, since Mark Carney declared a Palestinian state, many cities are now considered

00:01:54.480 as Palestine. So I asked him, what are those cities? He says, Ramallah, Janine, Nebulus, Jerusalem.

00:02:05.340 So at that point, I'm very confused. And I asked him, so now people can write Palestine on their

00:02:11.440 passport. And those cities are considered as Palestine. And he says yes. So clearly, I was

00:02:17.740 under some political influence because of who I am and where I was born, while just fulfilling my

00:02:23.860 right as a citizen to get a Canadian passport.

00:02:27.820 And going through this as someone who's applying for a Canadian citizenship, how did that make you feel?

00:02:33.800 It made me feel like something was wrong with me. Like it made me feel like Canada has some sort of

00:02:40.640 problem with where I came from, even though, you know, I'm a Jewish, I'm a Jewish Canadian,

00:02:45.920 I'm a Canadian citizen. I'm not just a citizen of Israel, I'm a Canadian citizen. So it made me feel

00:02:50.640 like I was a part of the conflict or I was in fault of something just for being who I am and where I was

00:02:56.940 born. So it truly, it just made me feel like really sad for what is going on. Like, not just for myself,

00:03:03.980 but like, I don't want anybody else to experience this. I truly don't. Because I knew to ask for the

00:03:08.980 policies. And then they said, Oh, yes, we can write Israel on your passport. But what if somebody doesn't

00:03:14.880 know what to do? And what if somebody falls on another employee who's against their country or

00:03:19.800 something like that? So it just made me feel really confused and, and, and sad, really.

00:03:27.960 And going a little bit broader scope, I saw that there is a lawsuit going on against now Passports

00:03:34.340 Canada that you're launching. Would you be able to talk as much as you can about that, obviously,

00:03:38.360 without breaking anything or invalidating the lawsuit?

00:03:42.340 So actually, we're not suing Passports Canada yet. We just sent out a letter, a legal letter,

00:03:47.400 we're asking them for clarification, but specific questions. So about which cities are declared

00:03:53.940 as Israel or which are declared Palestine. We're asking them about the policies that they

00:03:58.020 claimed that they were that they were true, like that they cannot write Israel on a passport

00:04:03.220 these days. We asked to clarify what kind of trainings do employees receive in Passports Canada.

00:04:09.480 So we asked for a test for them to answer in within 10 days. Hopefully, I can update you

00:04:16.020 as soon as the as soon as they reply. Perfect. Thank you so much. Is there anything else you'd

00:04:21.260 like to add? Just in general, I think that we should be aware of the consequences of how

00:04:28.140 Carney's decision to declare Palestinian state has have empowered certain people, and also government

00:04:35.240 workers, which I never expected would be empowered to discriminate against people of Israel or Jewish

00:04:40.280 people in Canada, or any person who is, I guess, not in their political sphere. So it's just, I think we

00:04:49.160 need to be aware of that. And I think we have to speak up about that and stand up for ourselves to not

00:04:54.460 experience any more discrimination. And really, if something happens to you or to your friends or to

00:04:58.200 anybody, speak up and stand up and do something, because we can't be silent at what we're looking at

00:05:03.860 these days, in Canada.

00:05:05.660 Thank you so much, Anastasia. I think that was a great discussion. For the Western Standard, this

00:05:10.860 is Jeremy Borg, signing off.

Western Standard - November 14, 2025

Applicant Says Passport Office Refused to List Israel as Birthplace： “Because of the Conflict”

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