Thanks Mohanned for putting this out there. What's the reasoning that the government has given for revoking citizenship? who are these people? I'm not sure if you are referring to a specific case. can you elaborate more on this please?

This is one of the least intelligent articles ever featured on 7iber. Emotional BS

At what point did the Palestinian who moved from Palestine to Kuwait then got kicked out in 1990 and sought refuge in Jordan, become a Jordanian citizen?
This is not an issue about Jordanians from Palestinian origin, the at risk population as mentioned in the report is mainly”Hundreds of thousands of Jordanians of Palestinian origin appear liable to have their national number revoked, including some 200,000 Palestinian-origin Jordanians who returned to Jordan from Kuwait in 1990-91.” in most cases it's about Palestinians who never were Jordanians and because of an “empathetic emotional decision” during the wartime they were given national ID numbers. Make up your mind is Jordan “Watan Badeel” or not?

Where do you draw the line, if you give Palestinians who moved from Kuwait citizenship, what about Palestinians in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt?? If you want a chance to return to Palestine and you are actively filling “Lam shamel” paperwork like the case of Fadi, then you are not a Jordanian citizen. If you got kicked out of Kuwait in 1990 and got stuck in Jordan then that doesn't make you a Jordanian. If you are in Jordan because you got “stuck” here in and out of other Arabian countries you shouldn't get an empathetic citizenship status. In most other countries you will be legally deported or at least forbidden from working and living a normal life.

Maha, while I understand your larger political reasoning, I can not accept its chauvinism. People should not be tools in political end games; what are those citizens supposed to do: – buy food on what money? live on what income now that they can't work? maybe they should sit around and wait for ta7reer Palestine, that should happen any day now.

This is one story, of many: http://www.alghad.com/?news=476661
Some are Palestinians who arrived from Kuwait, others are not. Generalising is demeaning to the personal stories, challenges and tribulations they have endured.

My by far favourite #Top50JO tweet was Naseem Tarawnah's “how when a calamity happens in the region & everyone elses' borders are closed, ours remain open”. Because a country isn't built solely on political reasoning; no country will ever be successful if its citizens cease to believe in its core identity and values. To me, a common denominator of humanity has always been ours. We can find more ways of annihilating the “Watan Badeel” propaganda without undermining our humanity or who we are as Jordanians.

You may call it emotional bs, but emotion remains the most important fact.

Maha, how do we measure citizenship? These Palestinians that have gone to Jordan in the 1990-1991 period were not entering it for the first time, for many it was home for decades prior, their families live there, they always owned land, and homes. For many (nay most) it was never a parasitic state of mind. It was not like all the Palestinians woke up in 1991, and thought: “Ok, I've been deported from Kuwait, where do I go? Eeny meeny miny mo..JORDAN” No of course not, Jordan was always home, and that thought bonded Palestinian and Jordanian for decades, until this new madness began. Also, it's important to know that many “Jordanians of Palestinian origin” love, and associate with Jordan, recognize themselves as Jordanian, and would give their lives without a second to defend it. But for a long time there has been a refusal from the Jordanian side to accept this notion, if someone introduced themselves as Jordanian the response came “…but where are you from…originally?” This of course was implicitly asking, are you Palestinian? Why can a person not decide on his/her own national identity, these people who love Jordan, and want to be Jordanian, and want to be invested in Jordan's success, should be encouraged, and rewarded, not alienated, and ultimately as said before “dehumanized”. The Jordanian approach to Palestinian issues has been rewarding and very succesful, and we can see that in this great country. Which model would you prefer? The Lebanese-model? Introduce an official 'second class' citizen system whereby Palestinians are relegated in a crypto-caste system? Or what about the Egyptian one, whereby state-less and ostricized to the last breath.
Finally, if this process is “corrective” as you imply, then there should be complete transperancy in what constitutes grounds for a 'withdrawal' of citizenship.

TO JORPALEBANES…..

What is it the you have in common with your avg guy in Marrakesh?

if you are a secular and he is a practicing muslim ?

language? hardly, you can only communicate in classical arabic, and since 50% of us cant read or write there is very little chance that you and he will be able to communicate.

Religion? what if he was an extremist and you are not?

Palestinians and Jordanians who came her from the Gulf are a different breed to the rest of us. Their understanding of Jordan, its history , its people is different, from my experience Palestinians who have grown up here or who have had strong ties to Jordan , view themselves as Jordanians, its usually Palestinians who have not grown up here or had ties to this country who view themselves as Palestinian or Jordanians from Palestinian origins

Hijab and bearded men have increased dramatically since 1991,Coincidence?

The westernization of our society has also increased dramatically since 1991, Coincidence?

I dont think so.

OH we goin down that route? spare me man, people who grow up in different countries will have a different understanding of history, culture, religion and such.

في عام 1950 جرى ضم الضفة الغربية الى الاردن ضمن استفتاء وانتخابات ديمقراطية وبالتالي اصبح الفلسطينيون اردنيون بكل معنى الكلمة
يذكر ان ضم الضفة الى الاردن كانت رغبة كبيرة لدى الملك عبدالله الاول.
اي سحب جنسية لاي سبب هو تمييز عنصري واضح و تطهير عرقي .
هكذا يقول القانون

To All of you: I have no interest what so ever in discussing your emotions on sha3eb wa7ad mish sha3bain. I'm talking about the HRW report
“Jordanians of Palestinian origin whose nationality is withdrawn become stateless because, under international law, Palestine in 2009 is not a state and has not been one at any time since Jordan's independence.” Human Rights Watch and International organization choose to point the finger at Jordanian policies instead of dealing with the real problem or even shedding some light on it. The problem is that countries of the world recognize Israel and don't consider Palestine a state therefore stripping all Palestinians of their identity and right to return to their non existent state. The fact that the international world has refused the legal statehood of Palestine, has rendered Palestinians stateless in the first place.

The determination of who has a right to be a national falls within a State's domestic jurisdiction, even with all the complexities of the two states and disengagement it remains a domestic issue. It is not up to the HRW to say the world doesn't recognize Palestine so Jordan has to give citizenship to all Palestinians. If Jordan didn't care about the human aspect they could have done what Egypt, Lebanon and Syria have done like Tawfiq said.

Deema: The majority were Palestinians living in Kuwait.

Tawfiq: this is not about a measure of citizenship, it's about legal citizenship, in my opinion most inhabitants of this country don't fulfill a fraction of their duties as humans let alone as citizens.

Zenah…it is this idiotic rhetoric about favors, a small sized country “needing” population, and “making us the enemy” that causes racism and sayings like mlookheyatek o 3al jesser. This is not about favors and ta7meel jmeeleh this is an actual problem that affects millions.

Look in the mirror Nas and ask yourself why you too is different form others. And I rest my case.

this is some of what happened to/in the middle east in 1991..it wasn't just our 'inconvenient presence' read up on all the American presence, that answers ur 'The westernization of our society has also increased dramatically since 1991, Coincidence?'
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Speci…

i suppose the Palestinians are the ones who spread and promoted the whole hijab and facial hair? i believe that came with Islam..i could be wrong..
if you can't hold a conversation please don't embarrass yourself.

I couldn't have said it better. Thank you Deena :)
Empathy and humane treatment should and must be our niche. Let us be in the region the country that gives rights, the nation that helps, the nation that cares.

whats really important though..is the FREE WEB!! no ? lol

What citizenship are you referring to? Does the fact that more than half of the population are still treated as temporary guests contribute to the “citizenship” disorder? Or maybe it is the fact that the other half are acting like children trying to protect the affirmative action-like privileges granted by the appointed governments? We are not syria or lebanon. We are JORDAN, and that is who we are. People,regardless of their origin, shouldn't pay the prices for politics. When king Hussein viewed palestine as part of his “destiny”, wasn't he also contributing to the destiny of Jordan-where we are now? Why should anyone pay the price for decisions made by the few, not to mention that they are unelected few.

Legal citizenship?Legal? Whom are we kidding, legality is a Joke in Jordan. Lives of people changed overnight “legally”. Women killed, “legally”. Children abused, “legally”. Parliament dissolved,”legally”. People held indefinitely,”legally”.

Legal,doesn't necessarily mean morally or ethically right. The fact that you dismissed a child's dreams as emotions is telling. The fact that you rules “fairness” as insignificant is also quite telling. You actually proved my point that,some of us,actually suffer from a chronic empathy deficiency disorder.

“in my opinion most inhabitants of this country don't fulfill a fraction of their duties as humans let alone as citizens.”
To describe citizens as merely “inhabitants” is quite revealing as how you view us. You seem to intentionally ignore and “forget” the history and the politics that made us passive citizens only trying to protect whats “ours”. You also seem to ignore that being marginalized for so long can only make you more detached. To use occupation and the “wa6an badeel” argument is only proof and a sign of political, and more importantly, moral bankruptcy.

You should be ashamed of yourself.

Different breed? How racist of you!

Okay,let me put it this way,because people like you only respond to such medicine.

What about the king,the queen,and the PM, how “similar” are they to you?
How about the Jordanian Zarqawi and the extremists from salt,maan,karak, and irbid? Are they “similar” enough for you?

“from my experience Palestinians who have grown up here or who have had strong ties to Jordan”

Your “experience” means nothing. It is THEIR experience, and you have no right talking on their behalf.

How about we have a national level loyalty and citizenship test? How racist and ignorant!

I wouldn't count it as a loss.

mohannad pls dont reply to my posts if you dont bother reading them

i clearly said

“Palestinians and Jordanians who came her from the Gulf are a different breed to the rest of us”

so spare me the racist tags and that bs.

Yes. I was going to draw attention to that article so thanks for doing it already. The shame is when a state toys with its own rules. There was no decision by the gov. to fix things for those people, only HM speech. Also any case of nationality withdrawal should be considered by the king personally. That's is the law. And what is this non-sense about how a Jordanian woman cannot pass her citizenship to her husband?

also how is racist to say because of the influence of jordanians and palestinians?

who am i being racists towards in that sentence? Martians?

In everything i have discussed i was discussing الجنسية not المواطنة.
the measure of good citizenship as in معيار المواطنة الصالحة is a totally different discussion that we are not getting into now. When i referred to inhabitants it was a side comment and i do mean anyone within the borders of Jordan and yes if you look at how much trash is in the streets, vandalism of public property, and lack of respect on city street that shows you general lack of good citizenship. Not our topic! Don't twist things

in 1988 King Hussein announced that Jordan would “respect the wish of the PLO, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people [according to an Arab League decision of 1974], to secede from us as an independent Palestinian state.”[13] Responding to this PLO request to secede, Jordan severed its legal and administrative ties to the West Bank, a process generally known as “disengagement” and “severance of ties” (fakk al-irtibat in Arabic).After this declaration Palestinians outside Jordan ceased to be Jordanians. Accordingly Palestinians who returned to Jordan in 1990-91 are not considered Jordanians.
Why is the government doing this 22 years too late? Pick a despicable twisted conspiracy theory that helps you play the victim role
Because that's how long it takes for the government to do things
because the government wanted the Kuwaiti savings of new wave Palestinians refugees
because the population of Palestinians is exceeding Jordanians
because the the odds are against the pro Hashemite government if Palestinians are voting citizens
because the UN funds and USAID are suffering from the economic crisis and Jordan can no longer تشحد على اللاجئين
because Jordan is a puppet for Israel and wants to help them make Palestinians miserable
Sho kaman?

If Jordan, it's rulers and people, are racist against Palestinians like everyone is accusing them to be then they could have closed their borders to the Palestinians from Kuwait, or treated Palestinians like Lebanon, Syria and Egypt do.

The chronic empathy deficiency disorder is a side effect of the epidemic scale self victimization.
Yes, Israel raped Palestine
Yes, It continues to do so
Yes, Palestinians are homeless and stateless
Yes It sucks, it's sad, it's atrocious and outrageous
but Jordan is not the Enemy, and Jordan is not responsible for the plight of Palestinians and Jordan has helped more than anyone and offered a home and will continue to do so, APPRECIATE THAT. Know your enemy and know your best friend.
Empathy well has run dry.stop begging for empathy it's not what WE NEED and think up some solutions to this problem we are a population of millions!! Should we have Palestinians with Jordanian Passports or Jordanians with Palestinian right of return, what terms should we negotiate?with whom?

Sadly what the uproar really is all about is the inconveniences of travel, ownership and paperwork. You are not gonna wake up someday to be kicked out to the border, maybe someday you will go to a government agency and realize you don't have a number or can't renew your passport. A passport is not and identity and never will be!

On a personal note to Mohannad: Get off your high moral unicorn, your writing has been nothing more than emotional whining. you love putting people in a box and always find things “telling and revealing” about them so you can resort to personal attacks.
Shame on you??…Grow the hell up man.
Stop playing the victim role, if you act like a biatch everyone will ride you like one

هذا القرار السياسى لمصلحه ابنائنا ممن سحبت جنسياتهم لان الاردن سوف تصرف لهم رواتب شهريه بامر الملك عبدالله بمبلغ 800 دينار اردنى لصالح كل شخص حتى يستطيع المتضرر ان يعيش بكرامه والاردن ملتزمه بذلك حتى تحل القضيه الفلسطينيه ان شاء الله فالملك شعاره المواطن اغلى ما نملك

باعتقادي الاردن تحتاج الى تصويب اوضاع من دون ادنى شك…كل حامل للجنسيه حتى ابناء العشائر يجب ان يسأل تحت القسم اذا كان يعتبر نفسة اردني واذا ولاءه الاول للاردن…وبناءا على الاجابة تعطى او تستبدل الجنسية باقامة…هكذا هو النظام بامريكا وباقي دول العالم.. يجب ان تضع الاردن نهاية لهذه المهزلة…ربما في حينها سيقدر المواطن الاردني معنى المواطنة…ستون عاما من الصبر واجيال تلد وتموت على ثرى الاردن ولا تحمل سوى الحقد الاعمى والضغينة على هذا البلد الكريم..

هذا القرار هو اولا قرار سيادي اردني وهو ثانيا لتثبيت حق الشعب الفلسطيني في ارضه ولتفويت الفرصة على الصهاينه في جعل الاردن الوطن البديل لفلسطين لهذا على كل اردني وفلسطيني شريف أن يؤيد هذا القرار . الاردن لا ولم ولن يتخلى عن حق الشعب الفلسطيني في العودة الى بلده ومقدساته واقامة دولته المستقله على كامل التراب الوطني الفلسطيني وعاصمتها القدس الشريف ومن العار كل العار التنكر لما قدمه الاردن وشعبه وقيادته الهاشميه من تضحيات في سبيل فلسطين لقد قدمنا ملوكنا شهداء على عتبات الاقصى فماذا قدم غيرنا ؟؟؟

Are you trying to rationalize only to make yourself feel better? Seriously.
I guess my talk flies right above your head. You aren't be able to understand what I am saying.

Hopefully you will be “inconvenienced” some day.

On a more personal note: Thank you :) You are the epitome of empathy deficiency disorder. It seems that you don't have the capacity to counter the above arguments, thus proving your moral and political bankruptcy.

Thanks.
But one thing: What is so “personal” when talking about injustice? How can such stories be viewed as neither personal nor emotional? Labeling something as emotional doesn't mean that the arguments are less valid. People need to understand that emotions are part of who we are.

Speaking about fairness and justice is inherently emotional. Taking emotions out of the “equation” dehumanize us.

If you can't see her moral bankruptcy in the arguments she advances then you must be like her.As simple as that.

you see that the emotional bs that she is talking about, look at how many times u mocked me or attacked my person, why? cause i disagree with you on some points, u went on and on about how racist i am yet when i showed u that the original text clearly said jordanians and palestinians u did not even have the maturity to say , yo i misunderstood,

this is trend that i find truly amusing in Jordan, pro and anti govt groups are both guilty of it, whenever they disagree with someone ,its accusations, mocking ,allegations and claims of moral , nationalistic , patriotic , religious and mental superiority , your first response to me ended with calling me ignorant and racist, to a point which you clearly misunderstood, you should practice what you preach , u want political freedoms then you have to learn how to act in such an environment.

comments like , i wont count it as a loss, is something that i expect from a uni or a high school student, not someone who is claiming to be capable and willing to take part of a serious political discussion.

best regards

the ignorant

There's a certain curious history that many don't know about: Many Jordanian families left to live in Palestine in the past because it was where trade and good life once flourished, where education was found, food and water were plenty. Many Syrian and Lebanese families would also go there to learn and some would relocate to Northern Palestine because it thrived. There were no borders then; we were all under one sky.

I've learned this after cooperating on a study with an American anthropologist who showed me all the evidence one could ask for; she counted 17 villages populated by families that originated in the East Bank and she said many more existed. In fact among Palestinian villagers it is common to denominate some families as of Badu origins and others of Falahi origins until this day. Those same families had come back to Jordan many years ago as Palestinians. Palestinians too are of many different origins like any other nation; they are of Syrian background, Egyptian, Jordanian, Lebanese, Yemeni, Kurdish, Cherkesian, Chechen; even Italian, French and Greek; etc. The moral of all of this is that our separation isn't because of natural borders and had only happened because we were defeated and succumbed to the victor's whims.

Decades later, it seems that we still are defeated, seeking petty identities that at the end will only serve to destroy our fabric and serve our enemies. Our identity is not what is being tested today, it is our civility and collective intelligence as a nation of humans with a joined destiny.