PALESTINIANS DISENFRANCHISED! UPDATE!!

 

30 AUG 2009:  Jordan's King has issued orders to purge the Jordanian military of all Palestinians.  The top echelon is being 'streamlined' by 'early retirement' of all Palestinian officers.   It appears that Jordan is not only concerned about the effect of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, but about concern that Iraq and Syria will try to destabilize the Kingdom. He is conducting the same process among government officials and cabinet members. [see DEBKAfile for story]

Those claiming Palestinian ancestry make up about (60-80%) of  Jordan's population of 6 million, of whom about 2 million are claiming refugee status by current estimates.  Under the minority rule of the Hashemite tribe of the Arabian Peninsula, most  Palestinians have until now enjoyed Jordanian citizenship.

claiming Palestinian ancestry make up about (60-80%) of  Jordan's population of 6 million, of whom about 2 million are claiming refugee status by current estimates.  Under the minority rule of the Hashemite tribe of the Arabian Peninsula, most  Palestinians have until now enjoyed Jordanian citizenship.

 

30 AUG 2009:  Jordan's King has issued orders to purge the Jordanian military of all Palestinians.  The top echelon is being 'streamlined' by 'early retirement' of all Palestinian officers.   It appears that Jordan is not only concerned about the effect of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, but about concern that Iraq and Syria will try to destabilize the Kingdom. He is conducting the same process among government officials and cabinet members. [see DEBKAfile for story]

Those claiming Palestinian ancestry make up about (60-80%) of  Jordan's population of 6 million, of whom about 2 million are claiming refugee status by current estimates.  Under the minority rule of the Hashemite tribe of the Arabian Peninsula, most  Palestinians have until now enjoyed Jordanian citizenship.

claiming Palestinian ancestry make up about (60-80%) of  Jordan's population of 6 million, of whom about 2 million are claiming refugee status by current estimates.  Under the minority rule of the Hashemite tribe of the Arabian Peninsula, most  Palestinians have until now enjoyed Jordanian citizenship.

 

Though this is a blatant violation of the UN statement of Universal Declaration of Human Rights according to Article 15 which says that "Everyone has a right to a nationality" and "Noone shall be arbitrally deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality",  much of the world media has barely taken note of this new ingredient in the boiling pot that is the Middle East. [See  Palestinian Rights: A Warning] It has been reported in the Jerusalem Post and in the London Daily Al-Hayat and noted by a few interested bloggers.  However, this is a concerted effort by Jordan to pressure beleaguered Israel into vacating Judea and Samaria in favor of a Palestinian State. King Abdullah II does not want any more Palestinian immigrants coming in from Israel, Syria, Lebanon, or Egypt. What he does want is a 2nd Palestinian State inside the borders of Israel to absorb his newly stateless ex-citizens when he deports them. 

From the Jerusalem Post: [see entire story: Jerusalem Post]

The Jordanian minister said that the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank had been notified of the decision to revoke the Jordanian citizenship of Palestinians.

A PA official in Ramallah expressed deep concern over Jordan's latest move and said that it would only worsen the conditions of Palestinians living in the kingdom. The official said that PA President Mahmoud Abbas raised the issue with King Abdullah II on a number of occasions, but the Jordanians have refused to retract.

 While the actual number of refugees is a matter of political dispute,  there are currently about 300,000 persons in 13 refugee camps. Former UNRWA chief-attorney James G. Lindsay considers the current number of refugees to be largely inaccurate: "In Jordan, where 2 million Palestinian refugees live, all but 167,000 have citizenship, and are fully eligible for government services including education and health care." 

Without adequate representation in the power circles of Jordan, Palestinians have often lived an uneasy peace with their 'landlords'.  There have been some serious conflicts under the rule of the Hashemites.

It is a fact of today’s anti-Israel demagoguery that  “population transfer” for Jews is not considered ethnic cleansing or racist, i.e. Gaza, Judea, Samaria. Nor were Jews who fled Arab lands under threat ever considered refugees by the UN.

During the rebellion of "Black September" of  1970-71 the PLO under Arafat attempted to overthrow the Jordanian monarchy, causing great losses on each side. However, to the great displeasure of other Arab nations, the Jordanian army succeeded to banish the survivors of the PLO groups to Lebanon. 

In the face of demands for another Arab state to be carved out of the remaining 30% of the British mandate, lone voices have been raised in Israel reminding the world that an Arab state has long existed for those Palestinians who wished to live under Arab rule.  Jordan already had a majority Palestinian population.

However, anyone speaking thus was shouted down as a racist, persecuted and some assassinated for so-called ‘promoting ethnic cleansing’ or ‘forced population transfer’. Needless to say, Jordan’s rulers have felt threatened at the mere hint of such heresy.

However, suddenly the call has been heard from an unexpected quarter!

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Lebanese Writer Farid Salman: Jordan, West Bank Should Become a Palestinian State Which Will Absorb the Refugees

 

Following are excerpts from an interview with Lebanese writer Farid Salman, which aired on OTV on May 6, 2009.

 

 "Jordan is An Invention... I Don't Know Whether to Laugh or Cry When I Hear a Jordanian Say That He is Jordanian... He Has Forgotten That He's Palestinian"

Farid Salman: "Jordan is an invention. Transjordan, which was an emirate, and later became the Hashemite Kingdom, is part of Palestine. Britain created it in order to crown one of the sons of Hussein, from the Arabian Peninsula, over part of Greater Syria - over Palestine. This continues to be the perpetual reason... Without removing it, the Palestinian issue will not be resolved. It's impossible."

Interviewer: "Some people in Israel talk about the Jordanian option..."

Farid Salman: "They are right."

….

  To view this entire clip, visit MEMRITV

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With the break-up of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I, the League of Nations and the occupying powers were required to redraw the borders of the Middle East.
 

More than 70% of the area called the British Mandate of Palestine was cut away to make a homeland for the Arabs refugees. It was given to King Abdullah I of the Hashemite family as a consolation prize.  Forced to abdicate the throne of Syria, he took over semi-autonomous control of what was called TransJordan (the area to the east, 'across' the Jordan river.)  The land was originally designated as part of the Jewish National Homeland by the League of Nations, however, the Arabs demanded it and received it.

 

On March 22, 1946, Abdullah negotiated a new Anglo-Transjordanian treaty, ending the British mandate and gaining full independence for Transjordan. In exchange for providing military facilities within Transjordan, Britain continued to pay a financial subsidy and supported the Arab Legion. Two months later, on May 25, 1946, the Transjordanian parliament proclaimed Abdullah king, while officially changing the name of the country from the Emirate of Transjordan to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

On April 11, 1950, elections were held for a new Jordanian parliament in which the Palestinian Arabs of the West Bank were equally represented. Thirteen days later, Parliament unanimously approved a motion to unite the two banks of the Jordan River, constitutionally expanding the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in order to safeguard what was left of the Arab territory of Palestine from further Zionist expansion.

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan now included nearly one and a half million people, more than half a million of whom were refugees evicted from Jewish-occupied Palestine. All automatically became citizens of Jordan, a right that had first been offered in December 1949 to all Palestinians who wished to claim it. Although the Arab League opposed this plan, and no other Arab government followed Jordan’s lead, the Hashemite Kingdom offered the possibility of normal life for many people who would have otherwise remained stateless refugees. 

[information from Jordanian government site]

And so, though Jordan has pretended to absorb the Arabs of what was once the British Mandate, they have indeed ruled them as a separate, identifiable population who can now have their citizenship canceled at will. Thus the Hashemites will preserve their power and Israel and the West will have to “deal” with the 2,000,000 newly disenfranchised Arab refugees and their descendants.

 The Jerusalem Post continued:

Asked by the London-based Al-Hayat daily where the Palestinians should go after they lose their Jordanian passports, the minister replied: "We're not expelling anyone, nor are we revoking the citizenship of Jordanian nationals. We are only correcting the mistake that was created after Jordan's disengagement from the West Bank [in 1988]. We want to highlight the true identity and nationality of every person."

Kadi claimed that the kingdom was seeking, through the new measure, to thwart an Israeli "plot" to transfer more Palestinians to Jordan with the hope of replacing it with a Palestinian state.