Again?

Here's the lead-in to a new report of Human Rights Watch:-

More than half of the 6.3 million population of Jordan is of Palestinian origin-that is, from areas west of the River Jordan, including the West Bank, today's Israel, and Gaza. With the exception of persons from Gaza, the vast majority of those persons of Palestinian origin have Jordanian citizenship. However, since 1988, and especially over the past few years, the Jordanian government has been arbitrarily and without notice withdrawing Jordanian nationality from its citizens of Palestinian origin, making them stateless. For many of them this means they are again stateless Palestinians as they were before 1950...Officials cancel, in a haphazard and arbitrary manner, the so-called national number that each Jordanian acquires as proof of Jordanian nationality.

Hundreds of thousands of Jordanians of Palestinian origin appear liable to have their national number revoked, including some 200,000 Palestinian-origin Jordanians who returned to Jordan from Kuwait in 1990-91.

What is the rational here?

Well, HRW claims that Jordan has withdrawn its nationality from 2,700 citizens who originated in "Palestine" between 2004 and 2008, this in violation of Jordan's nationality law of 1954. Under that law Palestinian residents of the West Bank in 1949 or thereafter received full Jordanian nationality following Jordan's incorporation of the West Bank in April 1950. A la HRW, the West Bank "came under Israeli occupation" in 1967, and Jordan ceased to exercise control over the area, although it maintained its claim to sovereignty.

Notice, the "West Bank", areas west of the Jordan River, actually is , as described in the 1947 UN partition recommendation, "Judea and Samaria", and was not under Jordanian "occupation". Tsk-tsk. That's rewriting history.

And HRW even has a demand of Israel:-

Pending such a solution, the Government of Israel should ensure that Jordanians of Palestinian origin and Palestinians living in Jordan are not removed from the population registry in the Occupied Territories, including East Jerusalem, and should consider including persons of Palestinian descent born in Jordan in the population registry as a matter of humanitarian concern.

Well, if they think that will help our demographics, they have another thing coming.

But let's make something very principled clear:

The so-called "Palestinians" never had a "state" - ever in history - and they were "stateless" after 1947 because they declined to accept a state proffered them. And many think they don't really deserve one from any objective measurement of nationality rights.

Good luck in Jordan, itself a state that Dr. JB Schechtmann describes as a "state that never was".