Ammon News - The Jordan Times

AMMAN - The administrators of Ammonnews.net on Saturday ended a week-long debate on national identity, Palestinians in Jordan and the so-called substitute homeland option citing “negative” comments posted by readers on the news website.

“After consulting with the writers in question, we decided to remove the articles, which spurred unpleasant comments by readers. We will also hold a dialogue session between the involved columnists but will not publish the results on the website,” Samir Hiyari, co-owner and editor of the news website, told The Jordan Times yesterday.

The debate was sparked by an article by columnist Nahed Hattar posted on the website last week questioning “the silence of the Palestinians in Jordan over Israeli plans to consider Jordan as a homeland for the Palestinians”, describing their silence as “complicity with Israel”.

The writer insisted there were no Jordanians of Palestinian origin but Palestinians living in Jordan, who have “an obligation not to relinquish their rights in Palestine”.

The article drew a spate of columns and replies, with some attacking his views, considering them discriminatory and attempting to deprive Jordanians of Palestinian origin of their rights.

They also accused Hattar of “sowing seeds of sedition” among the ranks of the Jordanian people, regardless of their origins.

Amer Hantouli, writing for the Elaf website, quoted an unnamed politician as describing Hattar’s article as offensive to Jordanians of Palestinian origin because it “questions their allegiance to the Kingdom”.

Hantouli challenged the government’s silence over the issue under the pretext of protecting freedom of expression.

Columnist Raja Talab responded to Hattar’s article in a column that was posted on Ammonnews and another news website, sarayanews.com, dubbing Hattar’s so-called “Jordanian National Movement” as a “butcher dismembering Jordan”.

Talab accused Hattar of “shifting the battle from Jordan versus Israel to Jordanians versus Jordanians”.

In the article, the columnist stressed that Jordanians from Palestinian origin have been contributing to the country’s social, political and economic development for over 50 years.

Ammonnews co-owner and editor Basel Ekour replied to Talab’s column insisting that Hattar represents the views of many Jordanians who believe that Palestinians are in Jordan on a temporary basis.

The debate on Ammonnews generated scores of online comments, which according to Hiyari, were far from professional and polite, leading the publisher to remove all articles posted on the subject to “prevent harm to national unity through the received comments”.