Posted on 10/18/2002 5:35:40 AM PDT by SJackson
Amman Al-Ra'y in Arabic 00:00 GMT 16 Oct 02 p 1
[Report by Taha Abu-Ridin]
[FBIS (US Government service)Translated Excerpt]
Amman -- The Jordanian Government has turned down requests for citizenship by 100,000 Gazans who carry Jordanian travel documents. This is in line with the Jordanian position, which adheres to the Palestinian refugees' right of return and compensation.
A government official told Al-Ra'y that "about 100,000 Gazans residing in Jordan requested Jordanian citizenship through memorandums they submitted to the government for this purpose recently." According to unofficial statistics, approximately 150,000 Gazans carry Jordanian travel documents. Of those Gazans, 25,000 live in the Gaza refugee camp in the Jarash Governorate.
The official, who requested anonymity, said the government turned down the Gazans' citizenship requests, "proceeding from the constant Jordanian position on the refugee issue and rejecting the idea of resettlement. This falls within the framework of the efforts supporting a fair solution to the Palestine question in a manner that guarantees the legitimate Palestinian rights to establishment of an independent Palestinian state with holy Jerusalem as its capital and the return of refugees to their homeland."
[Passage omitted on waves of Palestinian refugees received by Jordan]
[Description of Source: Amman Al-Ra'y in Arabic -- Jordanian daily of widest circulation; partially owned by government. Internet version also available at: http://www.alrai.com/]
..the government turned down the Gazans' citizenship requests, "proceeding from the constant Jordanian position on the refugee issue and rejecting the idea of resettlement. This falls within the framework of the efforts supporting a fair solution to the Palestine question in a manner that guarantees the legitimate Palestinian rights to establishment of an independent Palestinian state with holy Jerusalem as its capital and the return of refugees to their homeland."
In other words, this (in)action is consistent with the arab goal of replacing Israel with Palestine.
YES, although in strict honesty, I can't blame anyone for not wanting 100,000 Gazan Palestinians in their country. The thing is that the Jordanians know the Israelis can't live with them either, and want them kept there as useful cannon fodder.
"Arab and Muslim brotherhood" be damned. It's a riot to read the Islamic Q&A sites with all their bemoaning of their "suffering" Palestinian brothers, when not a single Arabic country wants anything to do with allowing them immigration. It's a sick joke, trying to use the Palies to accomplish what no Arabic army has managed to do.
Egypt has never asserted a claim to Gaza. Jordan did claim the West Bank for a few years, but abandoned it. They carry Jordanian passports, thus the attempt to claim Jordanian citizenship.
Of course you're right, neither Jordan, nor Egypt, nor any other Arab state want's anything to do with them.
Jordan restricts Palestinian entry at Allenby Bridge
Wednesday, June 26, 2002
AMMAN — Jordan has tightened restrictions on Palestinian entry amid increasing unrest in the kingdom.
Palestinian sources said Hashemite authorities are preventing an increasing number of Palestinians from crossing into the kingdom from the West Bank. The sources said Jordan's Interior Ministry now demands a special permit for entry.
Over the weekend, Jordan's King Abdullah criticized the rule of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, Middle East Newsline reported. The king said Arafat has lost control of militant groups.
"What I can say is that over the years I always thought Arafat was capable of controlling Palestinian public sentiment and extremism," Abdullah told the Belgian weekly Le Vif/L'Express. "I think that is no longer the case today."
So far, the sources said, thousands of Jordanians have been turned back from the Allenby Bridge, which separates the West Bank from the kingdom. They said the new restrictions were detected earlier this year amid rising pro-Palestinian unrest.
[Over the last week, Jordanian authorities arrested several Islamic activists who were organize anti-U.S. demonstrations as well as a boycott of American products. They included Ali Abu Sakr, head of the Committee Against Normalization with Israel.]
Jordan has often warned that it will not serve as a refuge for Palestinians fleeing a war with Israel. Seventy percent of the Jordan's population is believed to be composed of Palestinians, many of whom crossed the Jordan River in the 1948 and 1967 wars.
The sources said Jordan has also limited the number of Palestinians arriving to study in the kingdom. Restrictions have also been reported for Palestinians who seek medical services in Jordan.
In a related development, Jordan expects about 1,500 refugees from the 1991 Gulf war to be resettled in a third country. Most of the refugees are Iraqi nationals.
The Jordanians I have met would beg to differ.
You are being highly unfair. Jordan's population is already 70% Palestinian, that is either people who fled Israel/Palestine or who are descended from such refugees. It gave them citizenship and incorporated them into its society. Having already taken in all these people, Jordan is feeling excess population pressures. It is perfectly reasonable for them to place limits on their generosity. I certainly don't see any hypocrisy in isisting that people living West of the Jordan rivier should remain there and build up that land as their own.
In the incident to which you refer, the Palestinian groups attacked were conspiring to overthrow the Hashemite monarchy. It was only those groups, and not the Palestinian population in general, that were either killed or expelled. Jordan never practiced collective punishment.
Amazing how the left and Arab nations never point out that Jordan also is part of the so called Palestinian Homeland.
Where is it written that those people living West of the Jordan River have a right to move East of it?
Of course they would, but history tells a different story, an accurate one by historians that had no stake in it. I suppose you believe the Al Aska Mosque and the Dome of the Rock are actually Islam's third holiest site.
The British named the area East of the Jordan as Transjordan, yes.
Wasn't this 97% of the land originally earmarked as the Jewish homeland as stated in the 1917 Balfour Doctrine that was given to the arabs?
There are so many things wrong with this statement I don't know where to begin. There is no such thing as the "Balfour Doctrine." There was a "Balfour Declaration," in which the British government declared that it wanted to establish a Jewish homeland IN Palestine. What land area constituted Palestine was not clearly defined, and furthermore, it said nothing about a Jewish state, nor did it say that the Jewish homeland was to constitue the whole of whatever they meant to be Palestine. The British were intentionally ambiguous because they wanted flexibility in fixing boundaries of the proposed homeland.
But all this is moot. I don't see how a declaration made 86 years ago by an now defunct British government has any legal or more significance.
There is no difference between the Jordaian arabs and the arabs currently residing in the Palestinian region,
This is simply false.
there has never been and hopefully will never be a Palestinian State.
Prepare to be disappointed.
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