Labels: Facebook, Jordan is Palestine, Mudar Zahran
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:25 AM
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Labels: Jordan is Palestine, Mudar Zahran, real 'Palestinians'
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:45 PM
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According to the report, Jordan, in a clear breach of its international obligations, refuses entry to, or forcibly deports, Palestinian refugees escaping Syria. "Jordan has officially banned entry to Palestinians from Syria since January 2013 and has forcibly deported over 100 who managed to enter the country since mid-2012, including women and children," the report revealed.
The report quotes Basma, a Palestinian woman from Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria, who describes how the Jordanians turned her and others back. "They told us, 'You are Palestinians, you aren't allowed to enter,'" she recounted. "They took us in a bus and dropped us on the Syrian side of the border at 2 a.m."
Another Palestinian refugee from Damascus, 47-year-old Abdullah, was quoted as saying: "As we were crossing, the Jordanian army started firing at us. We all laid down flat on the ground to avoid the gunfire. After some moments two trucks with army officers came to us, before we knew what was happening an army officer shot five of us in our legs. We weren't trying to flee."
During the past three years, Jordan has received millions of Syrian refugees. But when it comes to Palestinians, the story is different.
The Jordanians are not afraid of the Syrian refugees because they know that once the crisis is over in their country, they will return to their homes. Unlike the Palestinians, the Syrians are not seeking Jordanian citizenship or new lives in the kingdom. The Syrians see their presence in Jordan as a temporary situation.
There is also no talk about transforming Jordan into a "Syrian state," as opposed to calls for creating a homeland for the Palestinians in the kingdom. As such, the Jordanians' problem is with Palestinians, not Syrians or other Arabs.
Fayez Tarawneh, head of the royal court and former prime minister, defended the anti-Palestinian measures in a meeting with Human Rights Watch last year. He said that a large influx of Palestinians from Syria would alter the demographic balance of the kingdom and cause instability.
The human rights group said that as a result of the Jordanian government's policy, many Palestinians from Syria do not have proper residency papers in Jordan, "making them vulnerable to exploitation, arrest, and deportation."
It continued that, "undocumented Palestinians from Syria dare not seek protection or redress from the Jordanian government against exploitation or other abuses."Really, the Jordanians aren't doing anything different than any other Arab country. If anything, Jordan is the only Arab country that grants any 'Palestinians' citizenship. And the world's reaction to this kind of treatment of 'Palestinians' by their fellow Arabs?
Labels: Jordan, Jordan is Palestine, Jordanian King Abdullah, Palestinian refugees, Syrian refugees
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:23 PM
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“The description of east Jerusalem as ‘Occupied East Jerusalem’ is a term freighted with pejorative implications, which is neither appropriate nor useful,” George Brandis said, reading out a statement written following a conversation with Australia’s foreign minister, Julie Bishop.Bishop - and the Australian government in general - is apparently even more sympathetic to the Israeli position.
“It should not and will not be the practice of the Australian government to describe areas of negotiations in such judgmental language,” he said.
Brandis said the description of areas, which are the subject of negotiations, by reference to historical events was “unhelpful.”
He added that Australia supported a peaceful solution to the Palestinian- Israeli conflict that “recognizes the right of Israel to exist peacefully within secure borders and also recognizes the aspiration to statehood of the Palestinian people.”
The comments came following a heated debate Wednesday evening in the Senate, where Brandis took issue when a Greens party senator referred to “occupied east Jerusalem.”
In January, Bishop – during a short visit to attend Ariel Sharon’s funeral – took issue with those calling the settlements illegal. Indeed, Australia now refrains from using the term “illegal” to refer to settlements. Canberra also does not refer to the West Bank as “occupied” territory, but rather “disputed” territory.Meanwhile, the little rump king in Amman is fuming.
Although the European Union routinely states the settlements are “illegal,” the US – which is adamantly opposed to Israel’s settlement policy – refrains from using that term, now generally calling them “illegitimate” or “unhelpful.”
Last month, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat wrote Bishop slamming Australia’s ambassador to Israel, David Sharma, for meeting Construction and Housing Minister Uri Ariel in his east Jerusalem office.
Erekat said the meeting had the “effect of attempting to legitimize the illegal situation on the ground and may be deemed as aiding, abetting or otherwise assisting illegal Israeli policies.”
Canberra simply ignored the protest.
The report cited Jordanian government spokesman Barbat Amon as stating that all territory gained by Israel in the "Six Day War" of 1967 is considered "occupied territory" by international law. Those territories include east Jerusalem and the Old City, which were wrestled from Jordanian control in the war.It's hard for the Arabs to hear the truth, isn't it? What 'international law'?
Labels: Australia, East Jerusalem, Jordan is Palestine, Jordanian occupation, Judea and Samaria, Julie Bishop, occupation
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:26 PM
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Labels: Jordan is Palestine, Jordan's King Hussein
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:31 PM
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Labels: Jordan is Palestine, Palestinian people
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:18 PM
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According to Kol Yisrael radio, Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur explained that the peace treaty with Israel was important for Jordan’s national security. He further said, according to the report, that the two countries share interests including water issues, borders, the so-called “Palestinian refugees” and Jerusalem.
Nsur’s comments came after around 1,000 people demonstrated on Friday near the Israeli embassy in Amman to protest the killing of a Jordanian judge by Israeli soldiers.
AFP reported that the protesters demanded that the 1994 peace deal between the countries be annulled.
IDF soldiers shot and killed 38-year-old Raed Zeiter, a Palestinian-Jordanian, at the Allenby border crossing on Monday, after he attacked a soldier and tried to grab his weapon.Incredibly, Prime Minister Netanyahu has apologized for Zeiter's death.
Labels: Amman, Jordan, Jordan is Palestine
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:19 AM
1 comments
One of the Koranic verses provided states that Allah gave the Holy Land to the sons of Israel until the Day of Judgment (Surah Al-Ma’ida, verse 21), and the other (Surah Al-Shara’a, verse 59) says that the land was bequeathed to the Jews.
The sheikh turned to those who “distort the words of the Koran,” whom he labeled as liars, and questioned where they had even come up with the name “Palestine.” He insisted their claims to the Land of Israel were forfeit because “Allah is the protector of the Children of Israel.”
And if that wasn’t enough, the sheikh went on to turn the tables on the anti-Israel propaganda machine by accusing the Palestinians of killing children, the elderly and women, of using human shields, and of having not an ounce of mercy for even their own children.
The sheikh’s words caused a storm in the Arab media, and were picked up by the Israeli Embassy in Amman.
The Arabic daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi further explained the sheikh’s position, noting that he supports the notion that Jordan is Palestine, and insists that Arabs living both in Jordan and the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories would almost all love to be Israeli citizens.
The Adwan tribe issued a statement distancing itself from Sheikh Aladoan’s remarks. But the sheikh was not intimidated, and insisted he would continue to make his voice heard on these matters.
Last year, Sheikh Aladoan visited Israel and spent time with the chief rabbi of Tsfat (Safed), Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu. The sheikh informed Rabbi Eliyahu and his students that in the Koran, “there is no name ‘Palestine’ for this land, and therefore, the Arabs should not be fighting the Jews over control of this land.”
Labels: Israel is a Jewish state, Jordan is Palestine, Koran
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:57 AM
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Regarding the Israeli demand to have the occupied Jordan Valley under its control in the case of a peace agreement, the premier said Jordan considers these lands and any other area that Israel occupied on 1967 as Palestinian lands. As for the Palestinian refugees, Ensour stressed that Jordan believes that all the refugees who came to Jordan during the period 1948-1949 have the right to return and are entitled to compensation whether they are holders of Jordanian nationality or not.
...
Reasserting that Jordan will not negotiate on behalf of the Palestinians regarding their envisioned state’s border with Israel, the minister stressed, however, that Jordan will be concerned about its borders and the state that it will share a borderline with.
He also stressed that any “security-related arrangement” in the Jordan Valley must take into consideration the Kingdom’s national security.
Labels: Jordan, Jordan is Palestine, Jordan Valley, Palestinian refugees, right of return
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:02 PM
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In private off-the-record meetings, top Jordanian officials make it crystal clear that they prefer to see Israel sitting along their shared border.
...
It is no secret that the Jordanians have long been worried about the repercussions of the presence of Palestinians on their border.
In a recent closed briefing with a high-ranking Jordanian security official, he was asked about the kingdom's position regarding the possibility that Palestinians might one day replace Israel along the border with Jordan.
"May God forbid!" the official retorted. "We have repeatedly made it clear to the Israeli side that we will not agree to the presence of a third party at our border."
The official explained that Jordan's stance was not new. "This has been our position since 1967," he said. "The late King Hussein made this clear to all Israeli governments and now His majesty, King Abdullah, remains committed to this position."
Jordan's opposition to placing the border crossings with the West Bank under Palestinian control is not only based on security concerns.
...
Besides the security concerns, the Jordanians are also worried about the demographic implications of Palestinian security and civilian presence over the border.
Their worst nightmare, as a veteran Jordanian diplomat once told Israeli colleagues during a private encounter, is that once the Palestinians are given control over the border, thousands of them from the future Palestinian state would pour into Jordan.
The Jordanians already have a "problem" with the fact that their kingdom's population consists of a Palestinian majority, which some say has reached over 80%. The last thing the Jordanians want is to see hundreds of thousands of Palestinians move from the West Bank or Gaza Strip into the kingdom.
Although the Jordanians are not part of the ongoing peace talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, they are hoping that Israel will not rush to abandon security control over its long border with the kingdom. Understandably, the Jordanian monarchy cannot go public with its stance for fear of being accused by Arabs and Muslims of treason and collaboration with the "Zionist enemy."
The Egyptians today know what the Jordanians have been aware of for a long time -- that a shared border with Fatah or Hamas or any other Palestinian group is a recipe for instability and anarchy.King Abdullah is motivated by his instinct for self-preservation. We should be no less motivated by the same instinct.
Labels: Jordan, Jordan is Palestine, Jordan Valley, Jordanian King Abdullah, Palestinian Authority
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:43 PM
2 comments
The British Mandate for Palestine, or simply the Mandate for Palestine, was a legal commission for the administration of the territory that had formerly constituted the Ottoman Sanjaks of Nablus, Acre, the Southern portion of the Beirut Vilayet, and the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem, prior to the Armistice of Mudros. The draft of the Mandate was formally confirmed by the Council of the League of Nations on 24 July 1922, amended via the 16 September 1922 Transjordan memorandum[1][2] and which came into effect on 29 September 1923[1] following the ratification of the Treaty of Lausanne.[3][4] The mandate ended at midnight on 14 May 1948.
The document was based on the principles contained in Article 22 of the draft Covenant of the League of Nations and the San Remo Resolution of 25 April 1920 by the principal Allied and associated powers after the First World War.[1] The mandate formalised British rule in the southern part of Ottoman Syria from 1923–1948.
The formal objective of the League of Nations Mandate system was to administer parts of the defunct Ottoman Empire, which had been in control of the Middle East since the 16th century, "until such time as they are able to stand alone."[5] The mandate document formalised the division of the British protectorates - Palestine, to include a national home for the Jewish people, under direct British rule, and Transjordan, an Emirate governed semi-autonomously from Britain under the rule of the Hashemite family.[1]Note that Wikipedia has done some clever editing above. They have changed what the document said to make it sound like 'Palestine' would include a national home for the Jewish people. But this is what the preamble to the mandate said:
Whereas the Principal Allied Powers have also agreed that the Mandatory should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2nd, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers, in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.[28]Note - no mention of 'Palestine' 'including' a national home for the Jewish people.
Labels: Balfour Declaration, British Mandate, Jordan is Palestine, Palestine mandate
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:38 AM
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Some 19 percent of Jewish Israelis prefer to see a Palestinian state in Jordan rather than in the West Bank, but only 7% really think it could happen, according to a Maagar Mochot poll commissioned by Professors for a Stronger Israel.
“There are alternatives; we are not sitting with a gun to our heads,” said former National Union MK Arye Eldad, as he addressed a daylong conference on Sunday that debated all aspects of the question of two states for two peoples on two banks of the Jordan River.
There are more options than the standard equation of “Either we will have a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria, or we will have a bi-national state,” Eldad said.
...
[E]ventually King Abdullah’s Hashemite Kingdom will fall prey to the Arab Spring, which has caused the ouster of other regional leaders.
“We need to have a plan in the drawer for that moment,” he said.
...
Mudar Zahran, a Jordanian- Palestinian political activist who lives in London, said he believed that King Abdullah II’s reign would soon end.
Based on the Maagar Mochot poll, however, only a minority of those questioned supported a two-state solution in which Palestine was on the east side of the Jordan River.
Out of those polled, 41% of Jewish Israelis preferred the status quo and 51% said they believed that the situation would stay the same. Only 11% said they preferred a two-state solution in the West Bank based on land swaps, and only 21% said they believed this would happen. Some 29% said they did not have a solution.
...
According to the poll, 53% of Likud Beytenu supporters said they preferred the status quo, 1% wanted a two-state solution in the West Bank and 30% supported Jordan as a Palestinian state.
Among Shas and UTJ party supporters, 67% preferred the status quo, 3% wanted a two-state solution in the West Bank and 21% wanted Jordan to be a Palestinian state.
Among the Yesh Atid, Hatnua and Kadima parties, 33% preferred the status quo, 14% wanted a two-state solution in the West Bank and 8% believed that Palestine should be in Jordan.
Out of those polled from the Labor and Meretz parties, only 7% preferred the status quo, 52% supported a two-state solution in the West Bank and none of them wanted to see Jordan become a Palestinian state.Now, if only someone could find our Prime Minister's backbone.... .
Labels: Arieh Eldad, Jordan is Palestine, Jordanian King Abdullah, Judea and Samaria, Mudar Zahran, Palestinian state, two-state solution
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:34 PM
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Labels: Jordan is Palestine, Jordan's King Hussein
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:11 PM
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"We are one people in two states, but Jordan won't be Palestine," Abbas tells Jordan paper @alrai
— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) July 22, 2013
Labels: Israel is a Jewish state, Jordan is Palestine
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:16 PM
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If comments attributed to Netanyahu’s National Security Council head Ya’acov Amidror in a Haaretz report on Thursday are correct – that Amidror believes settlement construction is badly hurting support for Israel in the West – then the groundwork is being laid for some kind of curtailment of settlement construction. Not a complete freeze, but some type of construction slow-down.
According to Haaretz, Amidror said recently in private discussions that it was “impossible to explain” settlement construction any place in the world, even in friendly countries like Germany or Canada.
“Construction in the settlements has become a diplomatic problem and is causing Israel to lose support even among its friends in the West,” the article quoted him as saying.
Those comments were leaked just hours after it was announced that he and Netanyahu’s envoy Yitzhak Molcho would be going to the US next week to plan for Obama’s visit. Those types of comments, that type of realization, is sure to be welcome in Washington, which is looking for something from Jerusalem to dangle in front of the Palestinians and thereby bring the Palestinian Authority back to the negotiating table.
Last Friday, before the announcement of the Obama meeting, The Jerusalem Post reported that among the ideas being discussed as an incentive for the Palestinians to resume negotiations was a settlement freeze outside of Jerusalem and the main settlement blocs.
Although the Prime Minister’s Office denied that Netanyahu was considering this move, it is gaining currency. One official in the Prime Minister’s Office underlined that outgoing minister Dan Meridor, who still has Netanyahu’s ear, publicly called for just such a policy in an Israel Radio interview on Thursday.
According to Meridor, the world questions Israel’s sincerity when it says it favors a two-state solution but continues to build everywhere in the territories, even in areas most assume will be part of a future Palestinian state. He said Israel should continue building in Jerusalem and the settlement blocs – areas he said many in the world have come to realize will remain a part of Israel – but not beyond those areas.Depending upon who is in the coalition, there might actually be enough votes for a freeze that does not include Jerusalem or the 'settlement blocs' (sad but true). But then the construction is mainly taking place in Jerusalem and the 'settlement blocs' anyway. And the conventional wisdom on whether such a freeze is likely to bring the 'Palestinians' back to the table is totally unrealistic.
While there are no guarantees, it is hard to believe that if Netanyahu made such an offer, and Obama and his new Secretary of State John Kerry pushed hard on Ramallah, PA President Mahmoud Abbas would reject it. And one of the arguments likely to be used in prodding the Palestinians is that a failure to accept the offer, a continued refusal to reenter talks, could have negative repercussions on an already precarious Jordan.This is amazing. First, Abu Mazen has refused to come to the table for the last four years, during which a 'settlement freeze' was almost always on the table.
Labels: Abu Mazen, Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Jordan, Jordan is Palestine, Middle East peace process, Palestinian state, settlement freeze
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:43 AM
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Labels: Jordan is Palestine, two-state solution
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:36 PM
1 comments
The report stated that "Prince Hassan stressed that the West Bank is part of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which included both banks of the [Jordan] River" and added that Hassan "did not personally oppose the two state solution, but that this solution is irrelevant at the current stage."[2] He later added that even if the two state solution does not materialize, there are other options. According to Hassan, "both sides, Arab and Israeli, no longer speak of a political solution to the Palestinian problem." He implied that even the Oslo Accords had met their end, and said that Arab losses from the Accords are estimated at $12 billion. The report added: "The attendees understood that Prince [Hassan] is working to reunite both banks of the [Jordan] River, and commended him for it."
Prince Hassan later added: "The unity that existed between the west and east banks for 17 years... was arguably one of the best attempts at unity that ever occurred in the Arab [world]... I hope that I do not live to see the day when Jordan, or the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, relinquishes the land occupied in 1967 by the IDF, since it would bring us all to witness the humiliating end... These lands, which were occupied as part of the 1967 lands, including East Jerusalem, were promised to us, and nowadays we speak of them as Area C..."
Prince Hassan tried to clarify his statements and said that in terms of sovereignty and law, the West Bank was occupied by Jordan in 1948, and that everyone, including the Palestinians, agrees that Jordanian law is the basis for the demand to reclaim them from Israel. However, he added, Jordan ceased negotiating for these lands with Israel following a request by the Palestinian Authority. Hassan said: "If, God forbid, we were to recognize the Jordan River as a border with Israel, then every element hostile to Jordan – and there are many – could claim that Jordan has failed in its demand [to restore] Arab rights."The only countries that recognized Jordan's occupation of Judea and Samaria were England and Pakistan - not exactly a stunning record.
Labels: Jordan is Palestine, Judea and Samaria
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:35 AM
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Why does no one call Jordan an 'apartheid state'? Why is there no 'Jordan apartheid week' on American or European college campuses? 'Human Rights Watch' reports that of the hundreds of refugees arriving in Jordan from Syria every week, those who are of 'Palestinian' origin are being sent to 'holding facilities' (i.e. prisons) and threatened with deportation back to Syria. Why is there no outcry? Why does no one care? Because a hypocritical world cares only when it believes that Israel and the Joooz are doing something wrong. That is the painful truth. And the sooner one acknowledges it, the sooner one is able to appreciate the false narrative that is being given to Israel by the 'international community.' Jordanian authorities have been turning away Syrian refugees of Palestinian heritage or threatening to deport those who have arrived in Jordan from Syria over the past year, according to a report released Wednesday by Human Rights Watch (HRW).
In addition, reports coming out of northern Jordan suggesting a sharp spike in the number of Syrians seeking refuge over the last few days, with more than 2300 arriving Tuesday, Arab media outlet Al-Jazeera reported Wednesday.
While local residents have been attempting to assist those who have already crossed the border, providing them with makeshift tents and other supplies, the Jordanian authorities are struggling to get a handle on this growing crisis.
“The situation in Syria is out of control,” a local analyst, who frequently assists HRW, told The Jerusalem Post in an interview Wednesday. “The crisis is becoming a religious, regional conflict and it does not seem like there will be a solution found anytime soon.”
Meanwhile, said the analyst, who preferred to remain anonymous, “Jordan must take in these refugees for humanitarian reasons even though we cannot afford to let them set up home permanently here because we just do not have the resources.”
He said that many of those arriving do not have official papers or identification, either because they left their homes in a hurry or because they destroyed them while escaping from Syria.
Another problem, he pointed out, is that many Jordanians, who married Syrians, including those with Palestinian backgrounds, are suddenly seeking Jordanian citizenship for spouses and that could eventually cause a demographic problem for Jordan. The population balance between Jordanians with Palestinian heritage and those without is a contentious issue in the Hashemite Kingdom.
The 'Hashemite Kingdom' is a fraud that was set up for a family of spoiled brats who lost out to their cousins in Saudi Arabia. Jordan is Palestine. More than 70% of 'Jordanians' are 'Palestinians' despite the 'king's efforts to keep 'Palestinians' from becoming citizens. It's time this fraud be acknowledged and confronted. According to the HRW report released Wednesday, since mid-April Jordanian authorities have been singling out Syrians of Palestinian origin, sending them to holding facilities in or around the town of Ramtha. In the meantime, other Syrian refugees have been allowed to move freely in Jordan if they have a local guarantor.Read the whole thing. And consider starting 'Jordan apartheid week' on your college campus next year.
Official figures suggest that some 27,000 Syrian asylum seekers have been registered in Jordan since March 2011 but this does not include the hundreds of Palestinians who have fled Syria and have been registered by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the HRW report said.
“To its credit, Jordan has allowed tens of thousands of Syrians to cross its borders irregularly and move freely in Jordan, but it treats Palestinians fleeing the same way differently,” commented Gerry Simpson, senior refugee researcher and advocate for Human Rights Watch. “All those fleeing Syria – Syrians and Palestinians alike – have a right to seek asylum in Jordan, move freely in Jordan, and shouldn’t be forced back into a war zone.”
From mid-June 2012, the New York-based HRW interviewed more than a dozen Syrian-Palestinians now in Jordan. Although they had entered the country in a similar fashion to thousands of other Syrians, without passing through the official border crossing, these families were singled out and detained for months with no possibility of release. There were even some claims of individuals or families being forcibly returned to Syria.
Labels: Hashemite kingdom, Human Rights Watch, Jordan is Palestine, Syrian uprising
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:32 PM
1 comments
In most countries with a record of human rights violations, vulnerable minorities are the typical victims. This has not been the case in Jordan where a Palestinian majority has been discriminated against by the ruling Hashemite dynasty, propped up by a minority Bedouin population, from the moment it occupied Judea and Samaria during the 1948 war (these territories were annexed to Jordan in April 1950 to become the kingdom's West Bank).Hmmm.
As a result, the Palestinians of Jordan find themselves discriminated against in government and legislative positions as the number of Palestinian government ministers and parliamentarians decreases; there is not a single Palestinian serving as governor of any of Jordan's twelve governorships.[3]
Jordanian Palestinians are encumbered with tariffs of up to 200 percent for an average family sedan, a fixed 16-percent sales tax, a high corporate tax, and an inescapable income tax. Most of their Bedouin fellow citizens, meanwhile, do not have to worry about most of these duties as they are servicemen or public servants who get a free pass. Servicemen or public employees even have their own government-subsidized stores, which sell food items and household goods at lower prices than what others have to pay,[4] and the Military Consumer Corporation, which is a massive retailer restricted to Jordanian servicemen, has not increased prices despite inflation.[5]
Decades of such practices have left the Palestinians in Jordan with no political representation, no access to power, no competitive education, and restrictions in the only field in which they can excel: business.
According to the Minority Rights Group International's World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples of 2008, "Jordan still considers them [Palestinian-Jordanians] refugees with a right of return to Palestine."[6] This by itself is confusing enough for the Palestinian majority and possibly gives basis for state-sponsored discrimination against them; indeed, since 2008, the Jordanian government has adopted a policy of stripping some Palestinians of their citizenship.[7] Thousands of families have borne the brunt of this action with tens of thousands more potentially affected. ...
These open displays of animosity are of a piece with the Hashemite regime's use of its Palestinian citizens as pawns in its game of anti-Israel one-upmanship.
King Hussein—unlike his peace-loving image—made peace with Israel only because he could no longer afford to go to war against it. His son has been less shy about his hostility and is not reluctant to bloody Israel in a cost-effective manner. For example, on August 3, 2004, he went on al-Arabiya television and slandered the Palestinian Authority for "its willingness to give up more Palestinian land in exchange for peace with Israel."[24] He often unilaterally upped Palestinian demands on their behalf whenever the Palestinian Authority was about to make a concession, going as far as to threaten Israel with a war "unless all settlement activities cease."[25]
This hostility toward Israel was also evident when, in 2008, Abdullah started revoking the citizenship of Jordanian Palestinians. By turning the Palestinian majority in Jordan into "stateless refugees" and aggressively pushing the so-called "right of return," the king hopes to strengthen his anti-Israel credentials with the increasingly Islamist Bedouins and to embarrass Jerusalem on the world stage. It is not inconceivable to envision a scenario where thousands of disenfranchised Palestinians find themselves stranded at the Israeli border, unable to enter or remain in Jordan. The international media—no friend of the Jewish state—would immediately jump into action, demonizing Israel and turning the scene into a fiasco meant to burden Jerusalem's conscience—and that of the West. The Hashemite regime would thereby come out triumphant, turning its own problem—being rejected and hated by the Palestinians—into Israel's problem.
...The desperate and destabilizing measures undertaken by the Hashemite regime to maintain its hold on power point to a need to revive the long-ignored solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict: the Jordanian option. With Jordan home to the largest percentage of Palestinians in the world, it is a more logical location for establishing Palestinian statehood than on another country's soil, i.e., Israel's.
Labels: Jordan is Palestine
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:54 AM
0 comments
Arieh Eldad reports that the 'Arab spring' is beginning to rumble in Jordan. The Hashemite regime is in trouble, and not only because the Palestinians, who comprise 70-80 percent of Jordan’s population, are waiting for an opportunity to join the “Arab Spring” and throw off the yoke of autocratic rule in order to enjoy true democracy. The Bedouins are the traditional power base of the royal family, especially the Bedouins of the cities of Karak and Salt, and they too are threatening to revolt, and for the first time calling to overthrow the monarchy.But Eldad cautions that Israelis should not be jumping for joy over this prospect. A 'Palestinian' regime (probably dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood and their Hamas surrogate) is likely to be more hostile to Israel than the Hashemites, with whom Israel has developed a modus operandi over the past 64 years.
King Abdullah understands that his turn will come after Assad’s. Perhaps this is why he has prevented the Saudis from transferring arms to the Syrian rebels via Jordan. Al-Jazeera reported that five Palestinians have been arrested and charged with attempting to undermine Hashemite rule. Undoubtedly many arrests have not been brought to the attention of Al-Jazeera.
A Palestinian blogger who dared criticize the monarchy was stabbed and seriously wounded. The monarchy has tried to insinuate the attack stemmed from “immoral behavior” on her part, but demonstrations swept through the local refugee camps, where angry Palestinians are sure the government tried to silence her.
Compared to what is happening in Syria, this really is not much of a news story. But compared to what was happening in Jordan even just one year ago, it is the equivalent of an earthquake.
Abdullah is no Assad, and the Jordanians know he will not massacre his own citizens; when the riots begin, he is more likely to flee to London. (The Palestinians do fear a civil war in which the armed-to-the-teeth Bedouin minority tries to defeat the unarmed Palestinian majority which is unprepared for battle.)
A growing number of Palestinians see this as their big chance. An independent Palestinian state in Jordan is within reach. Many will not make do with that, they view it as a first stage in the establishment of a “Greater Palestine” stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the Saudi desert.
Yet the number of voices in Jordan and in the Palestinian-Jordanian community abroad, mostly in London, calling to adopt a “Jordan is Palestine” plan is steadily increasing. They see it as a way out of the dead end in which the Palestinians are trapped. They understand that faced with the Palestinian Authority’s internal problems and the never-ending postponement of local elections, along with the ever-present and openly stated threat to dismantle the Authority – they are not likely to establish a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria, Gaza with its capital in Jerusalem.
Labels: Arab spring, Hamas, Jordan is Palestine, Muslim Brotherhood
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:48 PM
1 comments
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
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