Jordan queen's decree stirs tempest over citizenship rights

Analysts say the Hashemites can ill afford to further marginalize their Bedouin subjects, who have ancient tribal and trading ties with Iraq, by naturalizing more Palestinians. Last month, the kingdom faced its worst violence in 32 years, sending tanks to confront the southern town of Maan, the heartland of East Bank identity, and sparking fears of crumbling East Bank support for the Hashemites. Analysts noted that unlike Black September of 1970 when King Hussein deployed his Army against Palestinian militants, the target is now an East Bank town, the first in Jordan to recognize Hashemite rule.

Much of the anger has focused on King Abdullah's decision to suspend elections, dissolve the parliament - hitherto an outlet for tribal grievances - and rule by decree. To soothe regional tensions, King Abdullah recently started a "Jordan First" campaign designed to end Palestinian-Jordanian rivalries and forge a national identity based on kingdom rather than kin. Billboards throughout the country are emblazoned with Jordan First slogans, and alongside the requisite portrait of the late King Hussein in an East Bank trademark red-checked head scarf, his son, Abdullah, appears in a less clannish black suit and tie.

But East Bankers say the campaign is a pro-Palestinian assault on their privileges. In a biting edition attacking Rania's decree, the mouthpiece of East Bank opposition, Shihan, splashed its front page with the derisive headline, "Gazans First."

"If we're not doing enough to keep the West Bank Palestinian, we should at least keep Jordan Jordanian," says Fahed Fanek, an East Bank columnist. "The slogan 'Jordanians First' would be better."

Jordan First has fared better among Palestinians, despite warnings that the campaign could be used to deracinate them while doing little to dismantle a 50-year-old discriminatory system.

"Jordan First sounds great," says Fawzi Samhuri, director of the Jordanian Society for Citizens' Rights, which claims to be Jordan's only grass-roots group dealing with Palestinian cases. "But where is the implementation?"

Despite the king's campaign for equal rights for Palestinians, Mr. Samhuri claims that only six of the 147 judges appointed in November are of Palestinian origin. Two Jordanian ambassadors and six of 29 ministers count themselves Palestinians.

But with or without Rania's decree, members of the committee entrusted to implement Jordan First concede, Palestinian girls with Jordanian passports will continue to marry their cousins in the West Bank to rescue them from the misery of Israeli military rule.

Meanwhile, Jordanian authorities have imposed tough restrictions on Palestinians entering from the West Bank, slowing to a trickle the flow of families flocking to Amman for their holidays. Thousands of Palestinian pilgrims were forced to spend Ramadan camped in the rain at the border before Jordan allowed them to cross for the annual Umra pilgrimage to Mecca.

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