III. Withdrawal of Nationality

Withdrawals of Jordanian nationality have affected men and women of Palestinian origin from all walks of life. One thing they share is that their family roots are in the West Bank. Truck drivers, engineers, surgeons, businesspersons, and a UN official have all been the victims of arbitrary withdrawal of their Jordanian nationality, leaving them stateless, insecure, and with fewer rights than their (erstwhile) fellow Jordanians.

The loss of nationality in the 11 cases described here also extends to several dozen of their family members. For example, loss of a father's nationality automatically entailed the loss of his children's nationality, regardless of whether they are minors or adults and whether they had ever lived in the West Bank, and despite the fact that they had acquired Jordanian nationality by birth.

Jordanian officials have provided some statistics indicating that they have withdrawn the nationality of thousands of persons. On June 26, 2009, Fact International Jordan, a news website, published an article based on interviews with officials in the Follow-up and Inspection and in the Civil Status and Passports Departments of the Ministry of Interior, citing 300,000 Jordanians of Palestinian origin as the number of files whose review of Jordanian nationality remained outstanding.[82] But official statistics may not capture the real extent of the problem, since they refer only to cases in which new temporary passports without a national number were issued, or yellow cards replaced with green cards, or family books cancelled. These statistics thus fail to capture the number of all Jordanians liable to become subject to withdrawal of nationality. Hundreds of thousands may be at risk.

According to the Jordan Times, Member of Parliament Fakhri Dawud said that authorities had replaced 190 yellow cards with green cards from March 1 through June 30, 2009, compared with 204 such exchanges in the same period in 2008, and 244 in 2007.[83] Exchanging yellow for green cards entails a loss of nationality. In July 2008, Jordan Zad, a news website, cited what it said were official statistics of 352 cases of loss of nationality for the period between January 1 and June 30, 2008.[84] Muwaffaq Kamal reported in Al-Ghadd that official statistics of the Follow-up and Inspection Department showed that 2,732 Jordanians had had their nationality withdrawn based on the disengagement instructions between 2004 and 2008.[85]

Jordanian newspapers have begun to delve into the process of how or why officials decide to withdraw nationality, highlighting some individual cases. The media's portrayal of the fate of individuals and families at the hands of interior officials mirrors the stories of persons Human Rights Watch interviewed. Ahmad al-Jazzar, a surgeon with a specialization unique in Jordan, had his national number withdrawn, Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported on July 3, 2009.[86] Following publication of his story, the Ministry of Interior on July 18 said the surgeon's nationality had been restored, following the renewal of his Israeli-issued residency permit.[87]

In an article in Al-Ghadd newspaper, Abu Salim recounts how his wife, who is not named, lost her nationality after trying to get a passport in May 2009. The passport department sent her to the Follow-up and Inspection Department, which claimed that she had failed to renew her Israeli residency permit for the West Bank. She had gone to the West Bank with her two young children around 1993 for a three-week visit, and added her children to her residency permit. While crossing, she was issued a yellow card. She had not left Jordan since that time. Despite having a yellow card, her nationality was withdrawn.[88]

Al-Quds Al-Arabi, in its July 3 article, lists nine persons or families who lost their nationality. In addition to the surgeon al-Jazzar, they include the children of former Jordanian government spokesperson and minister of culture Asma Khadr, and Faris Yusif, who told the paper that officials withdrew his nationality because he had used an "enemy airport," presumably Israeli, when he flew to Venezuela to visit relatives there as a boy many years ago.[89]

With the stroke of a pen, or, as appears more often to be the case, by verbal notification of an arbitrary government fiat, the situation of these Palestinian-origin Jordanians has changed overnight from one of secure citizenship to a more circumscribed life with limited rights. To some, the shock of losing their nationality provoked utter disbelief. They returned to various Ministry of Interior branches to correct what they believed must be a mistake. "I sent perhaps 50 complaints to the ministry, with no result," Darwish Qawasma told Human Rights Watch.[90] Others became fearful and cautious, preferring to avoid official contact. All but two persons Human Rights Watch interviewed said they did not want their real names mentioned, because, Fadi explained, "this may lead to negative [con]sequences on me and my family in Jordan."[91]

Several persons told Human Rights Watch of the anguish caused by the loss of their nationality. Dr. Walid expressed his despair, saying, "We live in difficulty. Tomorrow, we don't know what to do. I need to live in peace. I can stay in Jordan or move ... anywhere, but I need to be able to live in peace.[92] Yusif Dawudiya echoed this feeling of being unsettled:

I am 70 years old, but I am still fighting an inner battle. I should be settled down [and] enjoy my family, some of whom are in the West Bank ... Now that I lost my nationality I fear that if I go I cannot come back. We are materially and psychologically depressed.[93]

Accounts

Fadi

"I was born in 1951 in Nablus, and came to the East Bank of Jordan with my mother in 1968, after my father had died. Both my father and I had Jordanian passports. I obtained mine in 1969, when I finished school in Zarqa. That year, I went to Basra in Iraq to attend engineering college, graduating in 1974. In 1974 I went to Kuwait for work.

In 1969, my mother went back to Nablus in the West Bank and applied to the Israelis for a family unification permit granting residency for me, and received it. Once a year, therefore, I went to the West Bank. In August 1984 I went to the West Bank for the last time. In August 1984 the Israelis changed the rules. Before, you had to renew the permit every year in person. Now, you could be absent for at most six years to retain a valid family unification permit [granting legal residency] before it would be canceled. You had to renew it once a year, but this could be done remotely. However, once every six years at least, you had to be physically present in the West Bank. By that calculation, August 1990 was the latest that I had to be present in the West bank to retain validity of my Israeli family unification permit. Between 1974 and 1984, the Jordanian embassy in Kuwait routinely renewed my passport. Therefore, I applied for leave from work on August 2, 1990, but Saddam [Hussein, Iraq's president] invaded Kuwait that same day and I couldn't leave. In January 1991 I left for Jordan.

In late April 2007 I went with two of my children, born in 1990 and 1991, to get their identity documents, which are required in Jordan for those over 16 years of age. The older ones, born in 1983 and 1986 already had theirs. The official told me that I had a yellow [bridge crossing] card from my 1984 visit to the West Bank and that I should go to the Follow-up and Inspection Department. There, I was told that in order not to lose my Jordanian nationality, I had to renew my Israeli permit.

In 1991 I had sent my permit [tasrih] to the Israelis in the West Bank to have it renewed, but the Israelis rejected this. I have tried through lawyers to get it renewed since 2007. Right now, we are all stateless."[94]

Darwish Qawasma

"I was born in 1950 in Hebron. I was two months old when I came to Jordan. My father was in the Jordanian army for 25 years, and my brother, born in [East Bank] Jordan, was also in the army.

In February 1967 I got my first Jordanian passport. In 1975 we received a family unification permit from the Israelis. It was valid for three years, and we renewed it every time. We also received a yellow [bridge crossing] card from the Jordanians. In 1984 my grandfather died, and we went to Hebron for the funeral. That was our last visit, and we have not renewed any permits since then. The requirement to renew your family unification card ended sometime in the late 1980s.

In 2007, when I renewed my wife's and my passport, I was sent to the Follow-up and Inspection Department. They wanted certification from the passport department that I have a yellow [bridge crossing] card. I got it, but the Follow-up and Inspection official tore up the certification in front of my eyes and threatened me that the national numbers of my entire family [with the exception of my Jordanian wife] would be withdrawn. In fact, this is what happened one week later after I went back to their office.

I have 11 children, all born here in Jordan. My wife is originally Jordanian, not Palestinian."[95]

Abbas

"In 1980 I graduated high school and moved from the West Bank to Kuwait. I had an Israeli-issued residency permit [tasrih] that I renewed every year. The last time I renewed it, its validity expired in 1986.

Two weeks before its expiry, I traveled from Kuwait to Amman and from there to the West Bank. At the crossing bridge, I gave the Israeli soldier my permit, and copies of the previous renewals. A while later, she came back and said, "You did not renew your permit." She had lost the last renewal form. She returned the other ones to me, and sent me back to the East Bank. At the Jordanian crossing, I received a yellow card, for the first time.

I went back to Kuwait, and in 1990, with the Iraqi invasion, I came back to Jordan. In 2005 my wife renewed her passport, and was sent to the Follow-up and Inspection Department, which sent her to the Ministry of Interior's Legal Department. There, they told her that she had to add our six children to my Israeli permit and that we had to renew it. This is despite her being fully Jordanian. They made me sign an undertaking that I would renew my Israeli permit within six months or pay a fine of 500 dinars. Whether I pay or don't pay, that changes nothing. It is simply fraud. I did not pay.

In 2007 I received a call from an official at the stock market. He told me I had to go to the Civil Status and Passports Department in the Ministry of Interior and renew my Israeli permit. A parliamentarian went on my behalf, and confirmed that all of us had our nationalities withdrawn, with the exception of my wife.

At that point I engaged an Israeli lawyer and paid him US$3,000 to retrieve the identity card and permit stored in Beit Il [the settlement in the West Bank that is the seat of the occupation administration]. He did not manage [to] and asked [for] more money. In the end, I have paid $12,000 with no result.

I have a Jordanian ID which expires in 2017. I have a passport that expires at the end of June 2009. After that I will be de facto stateless."[96]

Zahra

"My father's been here [in Jordan] forever and we were born here. We never even had a yellow card. Then, last year, suddenly, he was informed that his national number had been withdrawn when we returned on a flight from the United States. We, his children, are adults, but our numbers were also withdrawn nonetheless."[97]

Umm Randa Abdullah

"My husband was born in 1957 in Qabtiya, close to Jenin, in the West Bank. His family lived in [East Bank] Jordan, but his mother went home to give birth. A few weeks later, she came back with him. His father and grandfather are Jordanian, and worked as public employees.

In 1975 my husband went to work in Qatar. We married in 1983, and I moved with him there. In 1986 we moved back to Jordan and my husband worked for a state-owned company, linked to the Supplies Ministry. Then he worked for two years in a private company until he had a stroke two years ago.

In 2006 we did not have a valid passport for me or the children, so we applied for one, and went to the Amman Passports Department. They told us to go to the Follow-up and Inspection Department, which told us that my husband's nationality had been withdrawn and we couldn't get passports for the kids. I am Jordanian and have a passport. My husband currently holds a passport with a national number, due to expire in 2011."[98]

Yusif Dawudiya

"I was born in 1939 in Bait Dajan by Yaffa [in today's Israel]. In 1948 the whole family came to Amman. In 1951 or 1952 I got Jordanian nationality. I am an UNRWA [United Nations Relief and Works Agency] registered refugee. I completed primary and secondary education in Jordanian public schools. Then I studied in Cairo.

On December 27, 1961, I began work for UNRWA in Amman. In 1968 they transferred me to Qalandiya [in the West Bank], outside Jerusalem. I also had a UN passport and travelled a lot. It was a job requirement for me to move there. The Jordanian Ministry of Interior agreed to the move.

In 1984 UNRWA decided, with approval by the government of Jordan, to move me back to Amman. I did not receive a UNRWA expatriate allowance because I was considered Jordanian.

When I crossed the bridge into the East Bank in 1984, however, the official gave me a green card, saying it was only for facilitating my travel between the West Bank and Amman. But once in Amman, my five children were not allowed into government schools until UNRWA wrote letters on my behalf.

In 1985 I received a normal new passport, valid for five years. In 1987 I bought a house in the Sports City neighborhood of Amman and was able to register it in my name.

In 1990, when I went to renew my passport, the Follow-up and Inspection Department called me and told me that I needed a residency permit, because I had a green card and was thus not a Jordanian. Ever since, I have been a non-Jordanian."[99]

Basil

"I was born in Nablus in 1962, and came to [East Bank] Jordan in 1983, and was given a green card. In 1986 I was served with a notice to do national [military] service, an indication that I am a Jordanian. In March 1986 I arrived at the Amman airport from abroad, and was taken to the army. They took my [military] service book [daftar al-khidma] away, and fined me 30 dinars for not reporting for duty. Then they deported me to the West Bank.

Two or three months later I was allowed back into Jordan, and started work in a restaurant. Later, I opened my own restaurant in Zarqa. In 1989 I married, and wanted to register a house, but couldn't. I have been in the West Bank only once since 1987. I have an Israeli[-issued] permit, it is open-ended and does not have to be renewed. In 1995 I went to the West Bank with my wife to register my two children for the permit, but the Israelis refused."[100]

Dr. Walid

"I was born in Nablus in 1955. In 1967 my family went to Kuwait. Until 1972, I went back to the West Bank every year, but not after that. After 1976, I went to study medicine in Pakistan, finishing with my specialization in 1987. In 1988 I began work in Saudi Arabia, but in 1991 I was fired when Saddam invaded Kuwait, and went back to Jordan, where I work in a hospital. In 1993 I married a Jordanian and received a family book. In 1994 our first child was born and entered into the family book.

In 1982 or 1983, on a visit to the West Bank, I had received a green card from the Jordanians at the bridge, but never had any problems with staying in Jordan, until I went in 1996. That year I renewed my passport and received one without a national number, which I had had before. They also crossed my name out of the family book and issued a new birth certificate for my child, classifying her as Palestinian."[101]

Ali

"I was born in Amman in 1972 and have been an Amman resident from elementary school to university. My mother is from the West Bank and had an Israeli-issued residency permit, listing six unnamed "accompanying" [murafiq] persons. The permit expired at some point I think.

About two years ago, in 2007, my brother Muhammad went to get his driver's license. At the office they asked him to extend his permission to further postpone his [military] "flag service." When he went to that office, they told him to go to the Follow-up and Inspection Department where officials told him that our mother's Israeli residence permit was expired, and therefore ours was, too, and therefore our nationality would be withdrawn. This happened on September 23, 2007.

My mother had already passed away when this happened. Nevertheless, we spent money to try to get an Israeli permit for us, but without success. You know, one day the Israelis give permits, the next day they don't, it is unpredictable."[102]

May

"I was born in 1978 in Saudi Arabia, and moved to Amman in 1991, having been forced [to leave] by the Saudi government. My family is originally from 'Ilam, by Tulkarem [in the West Bank]. My father, born there in 1937, was a teacher before moving to Saudi Arabia in 1960. Our family always had a Jordanian passport and it was always renewed. I went to government schools, and in 1995, to Al al-Bait University, a government university. I graduated in 1999, and became engaged. I married in 2001 and continued studying and obtained a masters degree in 2004. That year, I began working as a teacher for disabled children, teaching 4th through 9th graders at a government school.

In July 2000 my father obtained an Israeli visit visa to the West Bank for me and my younger sister. I went to the West Bank on my Jordanian passport containing a Jordanian national number. While there for two weeks, I also got a Palestinian ID, which said that I was not married. I went back to Jordan and received a green card at the bridge crossing. Within two weeks, we were able to change our green to yellow cards at the Follow-up and Inspection Department.

On June 14, 2007, I went again to the West Bank with Jamila, my almost-five-year old daughter, and Rami, my younger son. We went to Ramallah to the Ministry of Interior to get Palestinian IDs for the children. The Palestinian Authority approved the papers and sent them on to Beit Il, the Israeli occupation administration. Israel said that I married in 1999, but obtained my Palestinian ID in 2000 as an unmarried woman, and hence on false grounds, and withdrew my Palestinian ID. In Islam, we consider the marriage to be in force after it is consummated, although we write a contract and get it authenticated by the judge before. I got engaged in 1999 and concluded a contract to be married, but only wed my husband in 2001.

But now the Jordanians did not let me and my children back to Jordan and confiscated our passports, saying we were Palestinians and did not have an Israeli permission allowing us to return to Palestine if let into Jordan. After my husband made calls and spoke publicly from Amman, we were allowed to enter two weeks later and got our Jordanian passports back. In December 2007 we went to renew my passport, and they sent me to the Follow-up and Inspection Department. I had to go four times, but they said I should bring my husband before they could renew it, because he had written about the matter in the newspapers. On February 2, 2009, I finally got a new passport with a national number, and with a yellow card. That too is a mistake since I no longer have a Palestinian ID or permit and am thus no longer Palestinian."[103]

Rafiq

"I was born in 1953 in Tulkarem, and moved to Kiev [Ukraine] in 1973; I finished my studies there in 1979, and moved to Kuwait in 1980. In 1990 I had to move back to Jordan. I renewed my Israeli residency permit [tasrih] every year from 1973 to 1990, when it became impossible because of Saddam's invasion. In 1986 I added my two daughters to the permit. I even paid 5,000 dinars in bribes to get them on the permit. In 1988 I bought a house in Jordan.

I renewed my Jordanian passport in 1991, 1996, 2001, and 2006. My current passport expires in 2011. On September 9, 2001, I was issued a Jordanian ID with a national number. My mother died in 1996, and I went to Israel with a visit visa permit for three days, not with a yellow or green card. That is the last time I was in the West Bank.

In December 2007 I went to the Follow-up and Inspection Department to renew the postponement of military service for my son, who is in university. The official told me that my nationality was withdrawn because I had not renewed my Israeli residence permit.

I don't know what to do. We still all have our currently valid passports with national numbers, but they will expire. I do not have Palestinian nationality and I even got a letter from the PA [Palestinian Authority] ambassador, and, a few months ago, from the Palestinian prime minister, to prove that."[104]