Jordan Is Palestinian

Ted Belman

A politically connected friend of mine approached me today to solicit my support in helping the author to organize a political party among the Palestinians in Jordan with a view to taking over when the opportunity arises. At this moment they are trying to raise the money that would allow them to get politically organized as a Democratic Party. Their intention is to be friends with Israel for their own defense and economic well being. They would be willing to take in all Palestinian refugees and even from Judea and Samaria. I suggested that they seek out American money already in the Budget to support democratic movements around the world. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Ted Belman by Mudar Zahran, Middle East Quarterly Winter 2012, pp. 3-12 (view PDF) Thus far the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has weathered the storm that has swept across the Middle East since the beginning of the year. But the relative calm in Amman is an illusion. The unspoken truth is that the Palestinians, the country’s largest ethnic group, have developed a profound hatred of the regime and view the Hashemites as occupiers of eastern Palestine—intruders rather than legitimate rulers. This, in turn, makes a regime change in Jordan more likely than ever. Such a change, however, would not only be confined to the toppling of yet another Arab despot but would also open the door to the only viable peace solution—and one that has effectively existed for quite some time: a Palestinian state in Jordan.The majority Palestinian population of Jordan bridles at the advantages and benefits bestowed on the minority Bedouins. Advancement in the civil service, as well as in the military, is almost entirely a Bedouin prerogative with the added insult that Palestinians pay the lion’s share of the country’s taxes. Despite having held a comprehensive national census in 2004, the Jordanian government would not divulge the exact percentage of Palestinians in the kingdom. Nonetheless, the secret that everyone seems to know but which is never openly admitted is that Palestinians make up the vast majority of the population. [LARGE SECTION LEFT OUT. GO TO LINK ABOVE TO READ IT] Conclusion Considering the Palestinian-Jordanian option for peace would not pose any discrimination against Palestinians living in the West Bank, nor would it compromise their human rights: They would be welcome to move to Jordan or stay where they are if they so wished. Free will should be the determinant, not political pressure. Besides, there are indications that many would not mind living in Jordan.[36] Were the Palestinians to dominate Jordan, this tendency will be significantly strengthened. This possibility has also recently been confirmed by a released cable from the U.S. embassy in Amman in which Palestinian political and community representatives in Jordan made clear that they would not consider the “right of return” should they secure their civil rights in Jordan.[37] Empowering Palestinian control of Jordan and giving Palestinians all over the world a place they can call home could not only defuse the population and demographic problem for Palestinians in Judea and Samaria but would also solve the much more complicated issue of the “right of return” for Palestinians in other Arab countries. Approximately a million Palestinian refugees and their descendents live in Syria and Lebanon, with another 300,000 in Jordan whom the Hashemite government still refuses to accept as citizens. How much better could their future look if there were a welcoming Palestinian Jordan? The Jordanian option seems the best possible and most viable solution to date. Decades of peace talks and billions of dollars invested by the international community have only brought more pain and suffering for both Palestinians and Israelis—alongside prosperity and wealth for the Hashemites and their cronies. It is time for the international community to adopt a more logical and less costly solution rather than to persist in long discredited misconceptions. It is historically perplexing that the world should be reluctant to ask the Hashemites to leave Jordan, a country to which they are alien, while at the same time demanding that Israeli families be removed by force from decades-old communities in their ancestral homeland. Equally frustrating is the world’s silence while Palestinians seeking refuge from fighting in Iraq are locked in desert camps in eastern Jordan because the regime refuses to settle them “unless foreign aid is provided.”[38] The question that needs to be answered at this point is: Has the West ever attempted to establish any contacts with a pro-peace, Palestinian-Jordanian opposition? Palestinians today yearn for leaders. Washington is presented with a historical opportunity to support a potential Palestinian leadership that believes in a peace-based, two-state solution with the River Jordan as the separating border between the two countries. Such leadership does seem to exist. Last September, for example, local leaders in Jordanian refugee camps stopped Palestinian youth from participating in mass protests against the Israeli Embassy in Amman;[39] as a result, barely 200 protesters showed up instead of thousands as in similar, previous protests.[40] As for East Jerusalem, under Israel’s 44-year rule, Muslims, Christians, and members of all other religions have been able to visit and practice their faith freely, just as billions of people from all over the world visit the Vatican or Muslim pilgrims flock to Mecca. Yet under the Hashemite occupation of the city, this was not done. Without claiming citizenship, Jerusalem would remain an open city to all who come to visit. The Jordanian option is an overdue solution: A moderate, peaceful, economically thriving, Palestinian home in Jordan would allow both Israelis and Palestinians to see a true and lasting peace. Mudar Zahran is a Jordanian-Palestinian writer who resides in the United Kingdom as a political refugee. He served as an economic specialist and assistant to the policy coordinator at the U.S. Embassy in Amman before moving to the U.K. in 2010. [1] “Jordan: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, 2001,” Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, U.S. Department of State, Mar. 4, 2002. [2] “The Report: Emerging Jordan 2007,” Oxford Business Group, London, Apr. 2007. [3] “Jordan: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, 2001,” Mar. 4, 2002. [4] “Brief History,” Civil Service Consumer Corporation, Government of Jordan, Amman, 2006. [5] Jordan News Agency (PETRA, Amman), Jan. 10, 2011. [6] “Jordan: Palestinians,” World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples, Minority Rights Group International, 2008, accessed Sept. 20, 2011. [7] “Stateless Again,” Human Rights Watch, New York, Feb. 1, 2010. [8] The Arab Times (Kuwait City), Jan. 13, 2011. [9] “Jordan: Stop Withdrawing Nationality from Palestinian-Origin Citizens,” Human Rights Watch, Washington, D.C., Feb. 1, 2010. [10] “Jordan: Information on the right of abode of a Palestinian from the West Bank who holds a Jordanian passport which is valid for five years,” Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Oct. 1, 1993, JOR15463.FE. [11] “Jordan’s treatment of failed refugee claimants,” Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Mar. 9, 2004, JOR42458.E. [12] The Palestinian National Charter, Resolutions of the Palestine National Council, July 1-17, 1968. [13] Al-Jazeera (Riyadh), Oct. 1, 2005. [14] Amman News, May 2, 2011. [15] Ibid., May 2, 2011. [16] Awni Jadu al-Ubaydi, Jama’at al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin fi al-Urdunn wa-Filastin, 1945-1970 (Amman: Safahat Ta’arikhiyya, 1991), pp. 38-41. [17] Samer Libdeh, “The Hashemite Kingdom of Apartheid?” The Jerusalem Post, Apr. 26, 2010. [18] CNN, Nov. 28, 2007. [19] Michael Korda, Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia (New York: Harper, 2010), p. 19. [20] Hürriyet (Istanbul), Mar. 4, 2011. [21] Libdeh, “The Hashemite Kingdom of Apartheid?” [22] PETRA, Aug. 6, 2011. [23] “Profile: Jordanian Triple Agent Who Killed CIA Agents,” The Telegraph (London), Jan. 2010. [24] Al-Arabiya TV (Dubai), Aug. 3, 2004. [25] The Jerusalem Post, Sept. 24, 2010. [26] Los Angeles Times, Oct. 1, 2006. [27] The Guardian (London), Dec. 6, 2010. [28] Qudosi Chronicles (Long Beach, Calif.), Dec. 16, 2010. [29] “Assessment for Palestinians in Jordan,” Minorities at Risk, Center for International Development and Conflict Management, University of Maryland, College Park, Md., Dec. 31, 2006. [30] “Jordan Military Expenditures—Percent of GDP,” CIA World Factbook, May 16, 2008. [31] Ha’aretz (Tel Aviv), Mar. 2, 2010. [32] Lilach Grunfeld, “Jordan River Dispute,” The Inventory of Conflict and Environment Case Studies, American University, Washington, D.C., Spring 1997. [33] Mary Jane Bolle, Alfred B. Prados, and Jeremy M. Sharp, “Qualifying Industrial Zones in Jordan and Egypt,” Congressional Research Service, Washington, D.C., July 5, 2006. [34] Mitchell Bard, “Modern Jordan,” Jewish Virtual Library, accessed Aug. 11, 2011. [35] The Christian Science Monitor (Boston), Jan. 30, 2003. [36] The Forward (New York), Apr. 13, 2007. [37] “The Right of Return: What It Means in Jordan,” U.S. Embassy, Amman, to Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, U.S. Department of State, Washington, D.C., Feb. 6, 2008. [38] “Non-Iraqi Refugees from Iraq in Jordan,” Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Feb. 20, 2007. [39] Mudar Zahran, “A Plan B for Jordan?” Hudson Institute, Washington, D.C., Sept. 16, 2011. [40] The Washington Post, Sept. 15, 2011.