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Why Do the Arabs in Judea and Samaria Lack Citizenship?

(Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs) Lt.-Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch - From mid-1948 to June 1967, Judea and Samaria were under Jordanian control. The Jordanians did not recognize the existence of the "Palestinian people" as a separate national identity, nor did they acknowledge the existence of a need to establish a separate Arab state in that area. Accordingly, the Jordanians did not work to establish a "State of Palestine" in Judea, Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem, or in any other area. Instead of working to establish a new state, the Jordanians annexed Judea, Samaria, and parts of Jerusalem. While most nations rejected the annexation, the Jordanians took it seriously and even gave Jordanian citizenship to all the residents of those areas. The Jordanians maintained their claim to Judea and Samaria until July 31, 1988, when King Hussein declared that "Jordan is not Palestine," and that he had decided to grant Judea, Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem - areas over which he had no title - to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). While the Arab residents of these areas had held Jordanian citizenship for 38 years, on August 20, 1988, the Jordanian government issued a decree announcing that "every person residing in the West Bank prior to July 31, 1988, is a Palestinian and not a Jordanian." In this manner, the Jordanians unilaterally stripped most of these residents of their Jordanian citizenship, rendering them stateless. While some privileged residents, such as senior PLO figures, were allowed to keep their Jordanian citizenship, in 2018, the Jordanians decided to revoke the Jordanian citizenship of PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas and 30 other senior Palestinian leaders. The writer, former director of the Military Prosecution in Judea and Samaria, is director of the Palestinian Authority Accountability Initiative at the Jerusalem Center.
2025-05-22 00:00:00
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