Israel Matzav

Very few 'Palestinians' receiving Jordanian citizenship

Research has shown that only 217 'Palestinians' have been granted Jordanian citizenship in the past decade, while hundreds of 'Palestinians' have had their Jordanian citizenship revoked.

Oraib Al-Rantawi, director of the Al-Quds Center for Political Studies and a columnist for the newspaper, said Ministry of Interior records showed that less than 0.5% of the 46,000 people to receive Jordanian citizenship since 2000 were Palestinian. The few that did, Al-Rantawi claimed, got it for purely technical reasons, such as marrying a Jordanian or reclaiming citizenship previously revoked.

This revelation was news to many Jordanians who believe there is a master-plan, both by Israel and elements in Jordan, to turn the kingdom into an alternative Palestinian state.

"These numbers show that all the noise surrounding political naturalization was unjustified," Said Diab, secretary-general of the Jordanian Popular Democratic Unity Party, a breakaway from the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), told The Media Line. "In fact, there is no political naturalization in Jordan."

The figures come at a sensitive time for Jordan, whose king has been parrying with the opposition over democratic reforms. Jordan’s elections have been skewed to give more weight to the country’s mostly rural East Banker population amid concerns that its Palestinians may constitute a majority and try to assert control. Jordan ruled the West Bank between 1948 and 1967.

The exact number of Palestinians living in Jordan is unknown, though some believe they constitute a majority. Some two million Palestinian refugees are registered by United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Jordan, mostly as Jordanian citizens.

The issue is among the most sensitive in a society ruled since independence by an Arabian dynasty claiming lineage from the prophet Muhammad. East Bankers are generally loyal to the king, but their fealty towards his wife has become questionable.

In early February, a group of 36 Jordanian tribes issued an unprecedented statement attacking Queen Rania. The tribesmen accused the queen of transferring lands belonging to them to members of her family and of overstepping her authorities as the king's wife. Public criticism of the Jordanian royal family is punishable by a three-year prison term.

But these issues seemed to mask a deeper animosity towards the queen for her Palestinian background. The authors of the petition accused Rania of facilitating the naturalization of 78,000 Palestinians between 2005 and 2010. The new data published by Al-Rantawi were meant to discredit these numbers.

Read the whole thing.

When you put that together with this post from earlier in the week, you cannot help but wonder what the Hashemi family has on the rest of the world.

Labels: Hashemite kingdom, Jordan is Palestine, Jordanian King Abdullah

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:51 PM