Jordan kicked the PLO out after Black September, they are no fools.
By mistreating the Palestinians and depriving them of their basic rights, Jordan and other Arab countries are driving them into the open arms of extremists, especially Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.
Jordan, Lebanon and Syria can continue their practices against Palestinians without having to worry about the responses of the international community or the media. No one is going to take to the streets of European and American cities to condemn Arabs for mistreating Arabs.
It is no secret that many Arab countries despise Palestinians and subject them to apartheid laws and strict security measures that deny them most basic rights.
The mistreatment of Palestinians at the hands of their Arab brothers is an issue that is rarely mentioned in the mainstream media in the West. Most journalists prefer to look the other way when a story lacks an anti-Israel perspective.
A story is big only when it is Israel that arrests, kills, or deports.
When Arab countries such as Jordan, Syria and Lebanon move against Palestinians, however, foreign journalists choose to bury their heads in the sand. Such has been the case with Jordan and its mistreatment of the kingdom's Palestinian majority.
Jordan's dilemma is that if it allows more Palestinians into the country, the kingdom, which already has a Palestinian majority, would be transformed into a Palestinian state. But by mistreating the Palestinians and depriving them of basic rights, Jordan and other Arab countries are driving them into the open arms of extremists, especially Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.
The Jordanians have clearly chosen to follow the second option, which means keeping as many Palestinians as possible out of the kingdom. As far as King Abdullah is concerned, it is better to have radicalized Palestinians outside the kingdom than to let them into the kingdom, where they would cause him more trouble.
The Jordanians see the Palestinians as a "demographic threat" and are constantly searching for a solution to this problem. Jordan's biggest fear is that its kingdom will one day become a Palestinian state. Jordanian authorities seem determined to do their utmost to avoid such a scenario, even if that means being condemned by human rights groups.
The Jordanians know that UN agencies are not going to denounce them if they deport Palestinians or revoke their citizenship.
Jordan wants to solve its Palestinian problem quietly and far from the spotlight.
A series of measures taken by the Jordanian authorities over the past three years serve as an indicator of Amman's increased concern over the Palestinian "threat." These measures include revoking the citizenship of many Palestinians and forcibly deporting others who are fleeing from Syria.
Ironically, the Jordanians say that these measures are designed to help the Palestinians. Jordan wants the Palestinians to believe that depriving them of basic rights and deporting them from the kingdom is something good for the Palestinian cause. The Jordanians say they do not even understand why the affected Palestinians are not welcoming the anti-Palestinian measures.
How do the Jordanians justify their anti-Palestinian policy? By arguing that if they aid the Palestinians and provide them with shelter and passports, this would serve Israeli interests.
"We don't want to be an Israeli tool for re-settling Palestinians who come to Jordan, by granting them citizenship," explained former Jordanian interior minister Nayef al-Qadi. "Otherwise, we would be telling the Palestinians to forget Palestine."
Al-Qadi, who played a key role in drafting the policy of withdrawing Jordanian citizenship from Palestinians, said he is also opposed to granting citizenship to the children of Jordanian women married to Palestinians and other non-Jordanian nationals.
"Why don't they call them the children of the men married to Jordanian women? Why aren't these children given the citizenship of their fathers? We have about 500,000 Jordanian women married to non-Jordanians. If we multiply that by 3-4, we will have to hand this country over to Israel and go away. We won't have anything left here."
The former Jordanian minister's attempt to justify the crackdown came shortly after Human Rights Watch released a report detailing Jordan's mistreatment of Palestinian refugees fleeing Syria. Entitled, "Not Welcome: Jordan's Treatment of Palestinians Escaping Syria," the report, which has won little attention in the international media, accuses the Jordanians of breaching their international obligations.
Read more:
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4...n-palestinians
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