Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Jordan, A Nice Place to Visit but...

For years the Palestinians have been trying to kick Israelis out of Israel and turn it into their own Palestinian state. And for years the Arab communities surrounding Israel have either remained silent or when vocal would lean on the side of the poor oppressed Palestinians.

Without going into the validity of who was where first there is one thing that must continue to be pointed out - None of the surrounding Arab Nations want Palestinians in their country.

With Israel making up a tiny percentage of all the acreage in the oil rich region how is it that the Palestinians cannot find land elsewhere with which to create their own country? The answer is as obvious as a suicide bomber - They want Israel gone. And while most of the other countries don't say it they have felt the same way for years. And without naming any country (Iran) some have even funded the fight and armed the fighters.

But slowly things are changing and Jordan is the latest chink in the armor of the poor people of Palestine.

King Abdullah, who's wife happens to be Palestinian has taken a step toward thwarting a perceived notion that Israel is about to ask Jordan to become the official Palestinian state. The reason this is a logical next step is that so many Palestinian refugees live in Jordan already.

His first step has been to revoke Palestinian citizenship en masse.

Here is the report from the Jerusalem Post:


"Many Palestinians living in Jordan are convinced that the Jordanian authorities are trying to squeeze them out," said Ismail Jaber, a West Bank lawyer who has been living in the kingdom for nearly 20 years. "There is growing discontent and uncertainty among Palestinians here."

He and other Palestinians said that Jordanians' "hostile" attitude toward them had escalated after the rise to power of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu earlier this year.

Several Jordanian government officials, they said, are convinced that Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman are secretly working toward turning Jordan into a Palestinian state.

As a preemptive measure, the Jordanian authorities recently began revoking the citizenship of thousands of Palestinians, leaving many of them in a state of panic and uncertainty regarding the future.

The Jordanians have justified the latest measure by arguing that it's aimed at avoiding a situation in which the Palestinians would ever be prevented from returning to their original homes inside Israel.

Jordan's population is roughly 70 percent Palestinian, making the difficulty of this move quite obvious.

However, Jordanian authorities say it is aimed at preventing Israel from forcing Palestinians out of Gaza. The former Palestinian citizens of Jordan will be allowed to stay as residents, so long as they obtain "yellow ID cards" from the government.

"We're not expelling anyone, nor are we revoking the citizenship of Jordanian nationals," said Jordan Interior Minister Nayef al-Kadi in an interview with Al-Hayat. "We are only correcting the mistake that was created after Jordan's disengagement from the West Bank. We want to highlight the true identity and nationality of every person."

-- Stephen C. Webster


Having them carry yellow ID cards?

Hmmmm.

And next wearing a patch of some kind on their arms might be a good idea.

Ooh, wait, they can move them all into a neighborhood all their own, sort of like a, uh what's the word, oh yeah GHETTO.

I thought this had been done before but after speaking with Mahmoud Achmadinejad and Hutton Gibson (Mel's father) I find I am mistaken.

And Israel is the bad guy???

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