Israel: 1) Status of Palestinians in West Bank regarding Jordan; 2) Israeli treatment of West Bank residents; 3) Effect of Muslim Fundamentalism on Palestinian Christians

1) According to information provided by External Affairs and the Palestinian Information Office in Ottawa, Palestinians, whether born in the Occupied Territories before or after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, have their status defined by their place of residence rather than their birthplace, unless they had previously acquired citizenship of some country.

On July 31, 1988, King Hussein of Jordan announced a

reduction of Jordanian participation in West Bank affairs. [Keesing's Record of World Events, (London, Longman Publishing Group), August 1988, p. 36120.] Until then, Palestinians were granted Jordanian citizenship and passports valid for five years. [ Professor John Sigler, Carleton University, 18 April 1989.] In spite of the new policy, Jordan agreed to keep open the bridges connecting Jordan and the West Bank, and continued issuing Jordanian passports to West Bank residents. In August 1988, a senior advisor to Hussein stated that"We do not consider West Bankers any longer Jordanians. We have to mark their passport in such a way that it will say so." [ Youssef M. Ibrahim: "Hussein is Frosty on New PLO role", in The New York Times, 2 August 1988.]

However, External Affairs indicated the Minister of Interior of Jordan declared in an interview in September 1988 that Palestinians holding Jordanian passports can enjoy the same rights as Jordanian citizens regarding movement, travel within and outside Jordan, trading and money use. Nevertheless, the same source indicated Jordanian laws regarding treatment of non-citizen Palestinians are not made public.

According to External Affairs, Jordan does not regularly issue one-year passports any more, except for specific purposes such as business missions, whether the holder is Palestinian or Jordanian. Currently, two-year and five-year passports are issued. A Palestinian holding a Jordanian passport is not necessarily considered a Jordanian citizen, but enjoys most of the same rights and privileges as Jordanian citizens without restriction, including entrance to and movement within Jordan. Residency restrictions may be imposed on the basis of cases reviewed individually by the Jordanian government. The same rights apply to Palestinians of both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The information provided by External Affairs is partially contradicted by that received from the Palestine Information Office, Ottawa. According to the latter source, Palestinians in the West Bank are now granted a temporary passport valid for two years, but are not permitted residence anywhere in Jordan, even if they are married to a Jordanian citizen. Palestinians born in the Occupied Territories are now given passports by Jordan only as a travel document. The source stated that holding a Jordanian passport does not make them Jordanian nationals or citizens and does not always guarantee entrance to Jordan, but is essentially a document that allows them to travel abroad from the Occupied Territories. The passports are issued on a temporary basis and are usually renewed, according to the source. The Palestinian Information Office stated that most Palestinians from the Occupied Territories are considered stateless, and are given travel documents by Israel, Jordan or other Arab countries.

According to the same source, all Palestinians residing in Jordan outside of refugee camps sponsored by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), as well as their children, are considered Jordanian citizens. Within the refugee camps, only those who arrived before 1967, as well as their children, are considered Jordanian citizens, while those who arrived to the camps after 1967 and their children are not granted Jordanian citizenship.

Regarding Jordanian citizenship for Palestinians, the situation may vary, depending on whether the subject is of Palestinian descent or a Palestinian refugee, and depending on his/her place of residence. According to External Affairs, the cases of children born to Palestinian refugees in Jordan are dealt with on an individual basis by the Jordanian authorities; however, children of a father who is a Jordanian citizen reportedly have full citizenship rights, whereas children with only a Jordanian- citizen mother are not automatically entitled to acquire Jordanian citizenship.

Citizens who have left Jordan reportedly have the right to return, and one source states that there are no reported cases of citizenship revocation for political reasons. [ Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1988, (Washington: U.S. Department of State, 1989), p. 1392.]

Please find attached a copy of a three-page document provided by External Affairs titled "Jordan and West Bank: Passports and other issues". According to External Affairs, the Jordanian policy stated therein is in effect.

2) Regarding treatment of West Bank residents by Israelis, various reports indicate the continuing uprising by Palestinians in the Occupied Territories has resulted in the implementation of severe security measures entailing arrests, injuries and, on occasion, deaths of demonstrators. Clashes between Jewish settlers and Palestinians have occasionally resulted in casualties on both sides.

As a result of these widely reported confrontations, Israeli authorities have established curfews and now require Arabs and Palestinians in the Occupied Territories to carry special identity cards and, if working inside Israel, they are required to return to the West Bank at the end of the day. Those linked to the leadership of the uprisings have been subject to detention, exile and effective house arrest through special marking of their identity cards, while taxes have been forcibly collected among those who have boycotted tax collections. [ "The Intifadah continues", in The Third World Quarterly, July 1989, pp. 33-35.]

For more information on the treatment of West Bank residents by Israeli authorities, please find attached a copy of Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1988: Israeli Occupied Territories, (Washington: U.S. Department of State, 1989), and the corresponding section of the Critique: Review of the Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1988, (Washington: Human Rights Watch/Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, July 1989).

3) Regarding the effect of Muslim Fundamentalism on Palestinian Christians, "The Muslim Brotherhood in the West Bank and Gaza" in The Third World Quarterly, April 1988, pp. 658-682, indicates that although Muslim Fundamentalism had gained influence among Muslims residing in the occupied territories during the late seventies, it has only been in the last few years that membership in Islamic fundamentalist organizations has increased. Of the various Fundamentalist groups, the Muslim Brotherhood is reportedly the largest and most influential, particularly in Gaza. Confrontations between rival Muslim groups have resulted in violence, and the Muslim Brotherhood has reportedly established the conversion of Occupied Territories' society into an Islamic society as a top priority. Moreover, its leaders have justified violence as a means to deal with rival nationalist groups.

Another article [ "The Intifadah continues", Third World Quarterly, July 1989, pp. 27-29.] indicates a "unanimity" in the Intifadah uprising and cooperation with Christians of Palestinian descent, who have previously been relatively politically inactive in the Occupied Territories. The article states that divisions exist, although there is a general coordination of activities.

 A third report [ "Palestinians and the Intifadah: one year later", in Current History, February 1989, pp. 75-76.] indicates that conflict between secular Palestinian nationalists and Islamic activists was largely contained during the first year of the Intifadah, although rifts had become more pronounced towards the end of 1988 and a definite split between the Intifadah leadership and Islamic activists over the issue of cooperating with the Communists was reported to have occurred late last year. [ Ibid.] The article also indicates an Islamic group called Hamas, reportedly a splinter group of the Muslim Brotherhood which, like other Islamic radicals, advocated "a more militant liberation of Palestine", [ Ibid.] organized strikes and demonstrations which competed with other groups.

Islamic fundamentalist groups reportedly account for a minority support among the Palestine population of the Occupied Territories, while the nationalist movement, led primarily by PLO groups, is supported by over 90 percent of the local Palestinians. [ "The Muslim Brotherhood Movement in the West Bank and Gaza", p. 679.]