Ammon News - Al-monitor - The decision by the Jordanian government to grant civil rights to the children of Jordanian women married to non-Jordanians has worried east Jordanian figures affiliated with the state’s old guard. They considered the new decision to be a first step toward naturalizing the Palestinian refugees residing on Jordanian territory.

They also considered that decision to be linked with the visits by US Secretary of State John Kerry to the region and his efforts to activate the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Jordanian Minister of Political Development, Khaled al-Kalladah, said yesterday [Jan. 27] that the government has reached an understanding with a large parliamentary bloc to grant civil rights to the children and spouses of Jordanian women, pointing out that the committees will be formed within the relevant ministries to decide on that issue and to complete the issuance of the decision by the Council of Ministers.

He added, “We stressed that a clause should be added to the decision confirming that these rights are not considered a basis for granting Jordanian citizenship to the children and spouses of Jordanian women, in order to prevent speculation about an ‘alternative homeland’ (the settlement of Palestinians in Jordan) and to prevent the decision from opening the door to naturalization.”

The minister’s comments sparked a storm in the country, led by a traditional elite that did not hesitate to express its concern about the supposed naturalization.

The former head of the Royal Court, retired Gen. Riyad Abu Karaki, one of the most prominent figures of the old guard inside the state, led a rare attack on the expected government decision. Abu Karaki was the head of King Abdullah’s staff last year.

Many pro-Palestinian Jordanian politicians considered Abu Karaki’s statements to be racist. On the other hand, some accused the pro-Palestinian politicians of “adopting chauvinist positions toward all that is of Jordanian origin.”

Abu Karaki said in harsh and cynical remarks that the government’s talk about civil rights is an “explicit call for naturalization. … Why isn’t the son of a Jordanian women married to a Palestinian given the passport of his father, who has a recognized entity called the Palestinian National Authority?”

Speaking in the local dialect, he continued, “It seems that Jordanian women … have nothing to do but to give birth [to foreigners].”

He added, “We can no longer take it. Taking care of our children is enough for us. We cannot [take care of the children of others.]”

Moses Barhoma, a prominent Palestinian-Jordanian political figure, responded by saying, “The former Royal Court Chief Riyad Abu Karaki [has spoken vile things after a long silence]. It seems that he suffers from a phobia of [foreigners]. Maybe he longs for the purity of the Aryan race argument. … The story is just about human and civil rights for thousands of people who have been uprooted from history and geography. … It’s about compassion.”

But the Jordanian government responded to Kalladah by saying, “The concerns of Jordanians toward the naturalization and resettlement issue is justified, especially in light of the tours by the US secretary of state to the region and the statements of Israeli right-wing extremists calling to turn Jordan into an alternative homeland for the Palestinians.”

Before that, Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour asserted to a number of politicians and activists that naturalizing children of Jordanian women married to Palestinians is “unthinkable” and that the decision to grant them civil rights “is not linked to the ongoing peace negotiations.”

Amid appeals by thousands of Jordanian women married to non-Jordanians about getting civil, not political, rights to their children, Abu Karaki and many others yesterday attacked the government’s arguments and linked the timing of the decision with Kerry’s tours, stressing that the number of children of Jordanian women married to non-Jordanians is more than a million, and that this number is different than the one given by the Interior Ministry, which rushed to emphasize that the number of those who would benefit from the decision would be fewer than than 338,000 children, from nearly 89,000 marriages of Jordanian woman to non-Jordanians (approximately 60% are married to Palestinians).

It was striking that Abu Karaki’s controversial statements were echoed by many east Jordanian statesmen and politicians in the past two days. Former minister and MP Mamdouh al-Abbadi said yesterday, “The government decision raises many suspicions” and called on parliament to block the decision.

An east Jordanian official elite has publicly expressed its fear of changing the country’s demographics, and denied the charges of racism and rejected the alternative homeland option. Meanwhile, a pro-Palestinian elite accused traditional forces of “practicing discrimination against Palestinian families under the pretext of fear of resettlement.”

Since the events of September 1970, some political and security elites in Jordan have been suspicious of Palestinian demography.

Contrary to the views of the late King Hussein Bin Talal, who wanted to unite with the Palestinians, that elite welcomed the decision to disengage the East Bank (Jordan) from the Palestinian West Bank and sought to activate that disengagement inside Jordan.

Before the disengagement, General Intelligence conducted a census on the number of Jordanians of Palestinian origin outside the West Bank. Their proportion was 48%.

After the disengagement was implemented, that figure dropped to 43%, according to the latest census.