Belgium refuses to renew passport of Israeli citizen living in Jerusalem area beyond Green Line

An Israeli citizen said Tuesday that the Belgian consulate denied her request to renew her long-held Belgian passport because she lives in the Pisgat Zeev neighborhood of Jerusalem, located beyond the Green Line.

Annabelle Herciger-Tenzer told Channel 12 news that after submitting the request, she received the following response from the consulate: “After reviewing our population registry records, we found that you reside in a settlement that is not recognized under international law, to which Belgium is committed. Therefore, it was not possible to register you at this address in the population registry of the Belgian consulate in Jerusalem. Accordingly, we hereby inform you that you are no longer registered with this mission.”

“The feeling was simply like being slapped in the face,” Herciger-Tenzer, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, who immigrated to Israel from Belgium in 1980, told the Hebrew network.

“I’ve been living in Pisgat Zeev for more than 20 years…suddenly, this emotional homeland is rejecting me. And for what? Not because, God forbid, I committed a crime, but because I live in Jerusalem,” she added.

Pisgat Zeev  — Jerusalem’s largest residential neighborhood, home to some 50,000 people – falls within the municipal borders of Jerusalem but is across the 1949 armistice line known as the Green Line and is therefore considered an illegal Israeli settlement by the majority of the international community.

Brussels has taken an increasingly negative stance against Israel in the wake of the war against Hamas in Gaza and, along with many other European states, recognized a Palestinian state at the UN last year.

Responding to the allegations in a Hebrew-language message to The Times of Israel, the Foreign Ministry said it views the denial of services “with great severity,” calling it “a step that does not contribute to relations of trust between the countries.”

“The decision by the Belgian government is disgraceful and hypocritical, and in practice discriminates between citizens on the basis of their place of residence. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and the Foreign Ministry conveyed their protest to the Belgian authorities, and reciprocal consular measures have also been taken,” the ministry said.

Israel’s ambassador to Belgium “lodged a formal and strongly worded protest with the authorities in Brussels,” the ministry added, saying “it is important to note that a petition filed by Belgian-Israeli citizens against the Belgian authorities is currently pending before an administrative court, arguing that the measure is unconstitutional, and we are awaiting a ruling.”

The rejection of Herciger-Tenzer’s passport renewal application came as tensions between Jerusalem and Brussels were already heightened following the indictment last week of three Jewish circumcisers in Belgium, which was also denounced by the United States.