Israeli passport

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Cover of Israeli passport

Israeli passport personal-information page

An Israeli entry stamp in a passport

Israeli passports are issued to citizens and nationals of the State of Israel for the purpose of international travel^[1] and entitle the bearer to the protection of Israel's consular officials overseas.

The statement in an Israeli passport declares in Hebrew (read from right to left) and English:

שר הפנים של מדינת ישראל מבקש בזה את כל הנוגעים בדבר להרשות לנושא דרכון זה לעבור ללא עכוב והפרעה ולהושיט לו במקרה הצורך את ההגנה והעזרה הדרושה

The Minister of the Interior of the State of Israel hereby requests all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer of this passport to pass freely without let or hindrance and to afford him such assistance and protection as may be necessary.

The Israeli passports are bilingual and written in Hebrew and English. Since Hebrew is written from right to left, the passports are opened from their right end and the their pages are arranged from right to left. Arabic is not used in Israeli passports, even though it is used aside Hebrew in local identity cards. The pages are decorated with elements borrowed from the Israeli coat of arms, namely olive branches and schematic representations of the seven-branched menorah.

The Israeli law allows Israeli citizens to hold foreign passports as well, but requires that the Israeli passport be used when entering and leaving Israel. This regulation was introduced officialy into the Israeli passport law in 2002, after being legally contested in several occasions. The fact that this law applies on all Israeli citizens, even those who don't reside in Israel, is the source of some confusion, especially when a person inherits his Israeli citizenship from one of his parents unawarely.

Since 2006 a valid Israeli passport is one of the documents accepted for identification in the general elections. Until then only internal identity card was accepted for this purpose.

Denial of an Israeli passport is one of the sanction an Israeli rabbinical court may use in order to enforce divorce on a husband who chains his wife into marriage against her will (see: agunah).

1 History
2 Traveling with Israeli passport or visa
3 Countries that do not accept Israeli passports
4 References
5 See also

[edit] History

The first Israeli passport was issued to Golda Meir.

^[2]^[3]

Until the early eighties, Israeli passports were written in Hebrew and French. Since then, the French texts have been replaced with English texts.
The first Israeli passports bore the inscription: "Valid to any country except Germany" (in Hebrew and French). An Israeli citizen who wished to visit Germany had to ask that the words "except Germany" be deleted from his passport. This was done manually by drawing a line on these words. The inscription was changed into "Valid to all countries" shortly after the signing of the Reparations Agreement between Israel and West Germany.

[edit] Traveling with Israeli passport or visa

Several Arab and Muslim countries will not allow entries to people with evidence of visits to Israel or used or unused Israeli visas in their passports [1], [2], [3], since the existence of the state of Israel is not recognised in these countries^{[citation needed]}. To help foreigners circumvent these restrictions, Israel does not require visitors to have their passports stamped upon entry or advanced visas, making it difficult for those countries to tell if a citizen or tourist went there.^[4] Many of these nations are aware of the exit stamps placed in passports by Egypt and Jordan at their land borders with Israel and may block entry based on the presence of these stamps. For example, a traveller may be denied entry to certain countries because of the presence of an Egyptian exit stamp indicating the person left Egypt at Taba, at the Israeli border. Some nations will void old passports and reissue new passports to their nationals based on the presence of evidence of a visit to Israel, recognising the passport's function is compromised.^{[citation needed]} The United Kingdom and the United States Department of State may allow a passport holder to have two valid passports to circumvent the restrictions concerning Israel if the applicant can satisfactorily explain why a second passport is needed when applying.

[edit] Countries that do not accept Israeli passports

Legend: Israel Countries that reject passports from Israel Countries that reject passports from Israel and any other passport which contain Israeli stamps or visas