Israel to revoke citizenship of 1.6 million Palestinian Arabs! ‘Israel’? I mean Jordan, so Guardian yawns

Strangely missing from the Jordan page of the Guardian is a remarkable story.

Per the Jerusalem Post.

Jordan has decided to revoke the Jordanian citizenship of Palestinian Authority and PLO officials, sources in Amman disclosed Wednesday.

The Jordanian newspaper Al-Arab Al- Yawm…quoted government officials in Amman as saying that the decision to revoke the Jordanian citizenship would also affect some 1.6 million Jordanians of Palestinian origin.

The move coincides with a new electoral law in Jordan that seeks to limit Palestinian representation in parliament.

While its unclear, from the article linked to above, who these 1.6 million Jordanians of Palestinian origin refers to, it’s likely those Palestinians who used to live in Jerusalem and the West Bank (when it was under Jordanian control from 1949 to 1967) who are now (following the Six Day War) residing in Jordan proper, and considered “refugees”.

Finally, the report included this passage:

Amman has defended the decision to strip Palestinians of their Jordanian citizenship by explaining that it is aimed at “preserving the Palestinians’ national identity and paving the way for their return to Palestine.”

So, in other words, over a million Palestinian citizens of Jordan will, if this law goes into effect, become stateless in order to decrease the country’s Palestinian population (now nearly half of the population of Jordan) and create the expectation that they will either return to Israel proper (per the call by Palestinian activists and their supporters of an “unlimited right of return”) or become citizens of the future state of Palestine.

Regarding the latter idea, as PA leaders have already said that such Palestinians living in the “diaspora” will not become citizens of a newly created Palestinians state, the move by Jordan would create more permanently stateless Palestinians who will be cynically used to continue the assault on Israel’s legitimacy, even following a future peace agreement.

Remarkably cynical? Beyond description.

A gross violation of human rights? Supremely.

A story worthy of coverage, and liberal sympathy, by Guardian reporters? Of course not!

Do I even have to ask how the Guardian would cover the story if it was Israel revoking the citizenship of over one million Palestinian Arab citizens?

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