Applicant Says Passport Office Refused to List Israel as Birthplace： “Because of the Conflict”
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Summary
Anastasia Zorchinski, an Israeli-Canadian was denied a Canadian passport because she said she was born in Israel. She explains why she was denied her Canadian passport and what happened to make her feel like she was discriminated against.
Transcript
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Good morning, Western Standard viewers. My name is Jeremy Borg. Today, we're going to be talking
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to Anastasia Zorchinski, an Israeli-Canadian who had her passport denied because she said she was
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born in Israel, and the worker said that that was not a possibility. Hi, Anastasia.
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Hi. So just to start off, would you be able to tell us a little about a little bit about what
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happened? Absolutely. So recently, I became a Canadian citizen, and I decided to, of course,
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get my Canadian passport. And I went this Monday to the application center to submit all of my
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documents. And as you know, you have to write your birth city and also your country of birth. So I
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wrote, Kfar Saba, Israel. So as I submit my documents to the lady working at the desk,
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she looks at them, everything looks fine. And then she says, unfortunately, we cannot write Israel on
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your passport. So I ask her, why? And she says, it's because of the political conflict. So we can
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only write Kfar Saba, which is the city of birth, and we cannot write Israel on your passport.
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So at that point, I'm very confused. And I try to understand how this is even true. So I asked her,
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if there was any other country written as my birth country, and not Israel, would you be able to put
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it there? So it's only because I said my country of birth is Israel that you cannot write it in my
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passport. And she says yes. Then I asked her to show me the policy where it says that because I really
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doubted that it was a true policy. And she comes back after five minutes with another colleague. And her
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colleague tells me that actually, since Kfar Saba is in Israel, we can write Israel on your
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passport. However, since Mark Carney declared a Palestinian state, many cities are now considered
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as Palestine. So I asked him, what are those cities? He says, Ramallah, Janine, Nebulus, Jerusalem.
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So at that point, I'm very confused. And I asked him, so now people can write Palestine on their
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passport. And those cities are considered as Palestine. And he says yes. So clearly, I was
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under some political influence because of who I am and where I was born, while just fulfilling my
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And going through this as someone who's applying for a Canadian citizenship, how did that make you feel?
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It made me feel like something was wrong with me. Like it made me feel like Canada has some sort of
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problem with where I came from, even though, you know, I'm a Jewish, I'm a Jewish Canadian,
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I'm a Canadian citizen. I'm not just a citizen of Israel, I'm a Canadian citizen. So it made me feel
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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
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born. So it truly, it just made me feel like really sad for what is going on. Like, not just for myself,
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but like, I don't want anybody else to experience this. I truly don't. Because I knew to ask for the
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policies. And then they said, Oh, yes, we can write Israel on your passport. But what if somebody doesn't
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know what to do? And what if somebody falls on another employee who's against their country or
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something like that? So it just made me feel really confused and, and, and sad, really.
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And going a little bit broader scope, I saw that there is a lawsuit going on against now Passports
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Canada that you're launching. Would you be able to talk as much as you can about that, obviously,
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without breaking anything or invalidating the lawsuit?
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So actually, we're not suing Passports Canada yet. We just sent out a letter, a legal letter,
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we're asking them for clarification, but specific questions. So about which cities are declared
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as Israel or which are declared Palestine. We're asking them about the policies that they
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claimed that they were that they were true, like that they cannot write Israel on a passport
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these days. We asked to clarify what kind of trainings do employees receive in Passports Canada.
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So we asked for a test for them to answer in within 10 days. Hopefully, I can update you
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as soon as the as soon as they reply. Perfect. Thank you so much. Is there anything else you'd
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like to add? Just in general, I think that we should be aware of the consequences of how
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Carney's decision to declare Palestinian state has have empowered certain people, and also government
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workers, which I never expected would be empowered to discriminate against people of Israel or Jewish
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people in Canada, or any person who is, I guess, not in their political sphere. So it's just, I think we
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need to be aware of that. And I think we have to speak up about that and stand up for ourselves to not
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experience any more discrimination. And really, if something happens to you or to your friends or to
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anybody, speak up and stand up and do something, because we can't be silent at what we're looking at
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Thank you so much, Anastasia. I think that was a great discussion. For the Western Standard, this