The Status of Palestinians in Jordan and the Anomaly of Holding a Jordanian Passport

What constitutes Jordanian citizenship has shifted dramatically since Jordan’s 1988 disengagement from the West Bank. Prior to 1988 all Palestinian refugees entering Jordan, with the exception of 1967 refugees from Gaza, were granted full Jordanian citizenship. This designation entitled them to the rights and responsibilities enjoyed by all Jordanians. However, this practice has since changed and thousands of Palestinian-Jordanians have been rendered stateless–losing all civil and political rights virtually overnight. According to Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle-East director at Human Rights Watch (HRW) “Jordan is playing politics with the basic rights of thousands of its citizens. Officials are denying entire families the ability to lead normal lives with a sense of security that most citizens of a country take for granted [1].