Jordan to 'revoke citizenship' of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, senior PA officials

Jordan to 'revoke citizenship' of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, senior PA officials
Around thirty top Palestinian officials are slated to lose their citizenship, including president Mahmoud Abbas, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and ex-Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei.
2 min read
26 April, 2018
Jordan has begun the process of revoking Jordanian citizenship for senior Palestinian officials. [Getty]

Jordan has begun the process of revoking Jordanian citizenship for dozens of senior Palestinian Authority and Fatah officials, including President Mahmoud Abbas.

Around thirty top Palestinian officials are slated to lose their citizenship, including Abbas, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and ex-Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, London-based Raialyoum reported on Wednesday.

It is unclear why Jordan decided to revoke the citizenship of senior Palestinian officials at this time.

The report said Jordan will also make major changes to visa entry arrangements for the senior officials, granting them only temporary visitors rights.

Several senior Palestinian Authority officials, including Abbas and his two sons, were granted Jordanian citizenship over a decade ago.

The citizenship requests were made by Palestinian officials themselves and it was not offered by Jordan, media reports said at the time.

Thousands of Jordanians of Palestinian origins have been arbitrarily stripped of their citizenship by Jordan over the past decade, rights groups say.

Jordanian officials have defended the policy as a means to counter future Israeli plans to transfer the Palestinian population of the Israeli-occupied West Bank to Jordan.

Jordan granted citizenship to Palestinians in the West Bank after extending sovereignty to the territory following its capture in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

King Hussein officially severed Jordan's legal and administrative ties to the West Bank in 1988, relinquishing claims to sovereignty and withdrawing Jordanian nationality from Palestinian residents.

While there are no precise statistics, it is estimated that up to half of Jordan's population is of Palestinian origin.

There are ten recognised Palestinian refugee camps in the country, with most residents, but not all, holding full citizenship.