Choice, loyalty, and the melting pot: Citizenship and national identity in Jordan

Nationalism and Ethnic Politics

Volumn 14, Issue 1, 2008, Pages 85-116

  Nanes, Stefanie ^a  

^a HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CITIZENSHIP; CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY; CULTURAL IDENTITY; CULTURAL RELATIONS; LEGAL RIGHTS; NATIONAL IDENTITY;

ASIA; EURASIA; JORDAN; MIDDLE EAST;

EID: 50649109615     PISSN: 13537113     EISSN: 15572986     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13537110701872683     Document Type: Article

References (101)

1. Curtis Ryan, Jordan in Transition: From Hussein to Abdullah (Boulder: Lynne Riener Publishers, 2002), pp. 9-10.
2. The primary research for this article is based on the results of 20 open-ended interviews with Transjordanian and Palestinian Jordanian elites who are all publicly engaged in the discussion of Jordan's national identity. All of the Palestinian Jordanians subscribed to the pluralist view in the Jordanian context. The Transjordanian elites were equally divided between pluralist and nationalist views. The research for this article was conducted in Amman, Jordan, from 1999 Nov. through 2000 Nov., with follow-up trips in the summers of 2005, 2006, and 2007.
3. A word about terms: Adnan Abu 'Odeh suggests the typology of "Transjordanians" (Jordanians of Transjordanian origin), "Palestinian Jordanians" (Jordanians of Palestinian origin), "Palestinians" (Arab people of Mandatory Palestine), and "Jordanians" (Jordanian nationals irrespective of their origins). Adnan Abu 'Odeh, Jordanians, Palestinians and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in the Middle East Peace Process (Washington D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1999), p. xv.
4. This classification is legally accurate, captures the complexity of identity in Jordan and is becoming common in academic treatments of Jordan's identity, as in Joseph Massad's Colonial Effects: The Making of National Identity in Jordan (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001). However, the terminology used within Jordanian discourse focuses on the concept of origin. For the purpose of clarity, and to drive home the tension between citizenship and national identity, I will use this more formal typology primarily. Reflecting more popular usage, however, I will also use the concept of origin, as in "Jordanians of Jordanian origin" and "Jordanians of Palestinian origin." Although Palestinian and Transjordanians are the two largest national groups in Jordan, there are other identity groups, including Syrian, Circassian, and Chechen. While their presence is essential for the understanding of Jordan as a melting pot by both pluralists and nationalists, these groups tend to be lumped into the category of Transjordanian by both groups. Their citizenship, identity, and loyalty are not objects of political contention.
5. Qanoon Idafi li-Qanoon al-Jinsiyya (Additional Legislation to the Nationality Law) Number 56, 1949-from Jaber Ibrahim al-Raawi, Sharh Ahkaam al-Jinsiyya fi al-Qanoon al-Uridni, (Commentary on Nationality Provisions in Jordanian Law)(Amman: Al-Dar al-'Arabi lil-Tawzi' wal-Nashar, 1984), p. 215.
6. These are not clearly dichotomous groups, but general political orientations that share a basic set of assumptions. Individual positions can be more nuanced.
7. I have chosen to use the term "pluralist" to describe this point of view since it captures the two primary aspects of their political project: The identity aspect and the rights aspect. In terms of identity, pluralism can be described as "a collection of diverse cultures operating within common boundaries. (Kallen 1915, quoted in Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., The Disuniting of America (New York: Norton, 1992), p. 36-7.)
8. In terms of the political system, the standard definition of pluralism, provided by Robert Dahl, describes it as "individuals and groups struggling to gain autonomy in relation to the control of others." (From Robert Dahl, "Pluralism Revisited," Comparative Politics, Vol. 10, No. 2 (1978 January), p. 191.) The Jordanian pluralists described here ascribe to both of these principles.
9. See Massad, Abu 'Odeh, and Schirin H. Fathi, Jordan-An Invented Nation?: Tribe-State Dynamics and the Formation of National Identity (Hamburg: Deutsches Orient-Institut, 1994)
10. Marc Lynch, "Jordan's Competing Nationalisms: Deliberation, Transition and Theories of Ethnic Conflict," presented at annual meeting of Middle East Studies Association, Chicago, 1998
11. and Andrew Shryock, Nationalism and the Genealogical Imagination: Oral History and Textual Authority in Tribal Jordan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997).
12. The closest approximation would be a discussion of Jordanian civil society, but they are not discussed in terms of their relation to this debate. Furthermore, "civil society" easily contains as many Transjordanian nationalists.
13. The primary exceptions would be Nils A. Butenschon, Uri Davis, and Manuel Hassassian, eds., Citizenship and the State in the Middle East: Approaches and Understandings (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2000)
14. and Uri Davis, Citizenship and the State: A Comparative Study of Citizenship Legislation in Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon (Ithaca: Ithaca Press, 1997).
15. Eugene L. Rogan, "Jordan and 1948: The Persistence of an Official History," in Eugene Rogan and Avi Shlaim (eds.), The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001) p. 120.
16. For Transjordanian social policy in the early decades, see Ricardo Bocco and Tariq Tell, "Pax Britannica in the Steppe: British Policy and the Transjordanian Bedouin, 1923-39," in Eugene L. Rogan and Tariq Tell (eds.), Village, Steppe and State: The Social Origins of Modern Jordan (London: British Academic Press, 1994), pp. 108-27.
17. On Jordanian national identity and the army, see P. J. Vatikiotis, Politics and the Military in Jordan (London: Frank Cass & Co., 1967).
18. For the role of the tribes in the regime, see Paul Jureidini and R. D. McLaurin, Jordan: The Impact of Social Change on the Role of the Tribes, (Washington D.C.: Praeger, 1984)
19. and Linda Layne, Home and Homeland: The Dialogics of Tribal and National Identities in Jordan, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994).
20. Laurie A. Brand, Palestinians in the Arab World: Institution Building and the Search for a State (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988), p. 150.
21. Laurie Brand, "Palestinians and Jordanians: A Crisis of Identity," Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 24 (1995), pp. 46-61.
22. Deborah Kapchan, Gender on the Market: Moroccan Women and the Revoicing of Tradition (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), p.6.
23. Of course, the two realms of "Jordan" and "Palestine" were only somewhat differentiated realms prior to the advent of British colonial rule in 1920. However, by 1948, there was enough of a difference that the regime saw a need for a concerted campaign of action to bring the two banks together.
24. See Massad, p. 240-6 regarding Transjordanians who sided with the guerillas, and Brand, "Crisis of Identity," p. 54 regarding Palestinians who avoided participation in general.
25. See: Fathi, Chapter 6, Massad, p. 258, Abu 'Odeh, p. 214-6
26. and Brand, "Crisis of Identity," p. 53. All make clear references to a policy of preferential hiring for Transjordanians in the aftermath of the civil conflict.
27. Jordan had both employed pan-Arab nationalism and been destabilized by it, thus while the regime lost part of its legitimizing trope, it also breathed a sigh of relief at the deflation of Nasser's rhetorical power.
28. In a recent issue of this journal, Hillel Frisch presents the argument that, contrary to most accounts of the disengagement that mark it as Jordan ending its pursuit of the West Bank, the regime continues to leave open the possibility of its return, as shown by speeches given at the time and leaving the 1950 constitutional provisions for unification unchanged. While the argument is interesting theoretically in terms of the nature of Jordanian national identity, there is little evidence that the Jordanian regime is either actively seeking the return of the West Bank or attempting to speak on behalf of the Palestinian cause.
29. Hillel Frisch, "Fuzzy Nationalism: The Case of Jordan," Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Vol. 8, No. 4, (1997), pp. 86-103.
30. Marc Lynch, State Interests and Public Spheres: The International Politics of Jordan's Identity (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999).
31. Amatzia Baram, "Territorial Nationalism in the Middle East," Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 26 (1990), p. 441.
32. Philip Robins, A History of Jordan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 169. Palestinian Jordanians all over the country notably abstained from participating in the riots or any other protest during this time.
33. For extensive discussion of the limits of Jordan's cautious, and now completely stalled, democratization, see Betty Anderson, "The Status of 'Democracy' in Jordan," Critique: Journal of Critical Studies of Iran and the Middle East, Vol. 10, (1997) pp. 55-76
34. and Katharine Rath, "The Process of Democratization in Jordan," Middle Eastern Studies," Vol. 30 (1994), pp. 530-57.
35. Current electoral institutions are strongly skewed to favor Transjordanians. For example, Zarqa, a heavily Palestinian Jordanian area, has six representatives for its population of 643,323, a ratio of one representative for every 107,221 constituents. In contrast, the district of Tafileh, a regime stronghold, has three representatives for a population of 54,525, a ratio of one representative for every 18,175 constituents. From Tim Riedel, "The 1993 Parliamentary Elections in Jordan," Orient, Vol. 35 (1994), pp. 63. While Parliament is not a particularly powerful institution in Jordan, this allocation of seats shows whom the regime sees as its primary constituency.
36. Personal interview, 2000 Oct.
37. Yitzhak Reiter, "The Palestinian Transjordanian Rift: Economic Might and Political Power in Jordan," Middle East Journal, Vol. 58, No. 1 (Winter 2004), pp. 72-91. Rieter shows a breakdown of the Jordanian economy in which Transjordanians dominate the public sector and Palestinian Jordanians control the private sector, particularly the banking sector. As the article points out, however, this economic power does not translate into political power.
38. Author observation from repeated conversations during fieldwork, 1999 Nov.-2000 Nov. and the summers of 2005, 2006, and 2007.
39. Joseph Massad records "private complaints" of this phenomenon in Colonizing Effects, p. 267. I also encountered these claims, made in private, during my fieldwork. Although these claims make logical sense given state policy for the last several decades and are important for their political value, they have not been verified empirically. Yitzhak Reiter does discuss Transjordanians being primarily the ones operating state-owned enterprises.
40. Nils A. Butenschon, "State, Power, and Citizenship in the Middle East,v in Citizenship and the State in the Middle East, p. 11.
41. Thomas Janowski, Citizenship and Civil Society: A Framework of Rights and Obligations in Liberal, Traditional, and Social Democratic Regimes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 9.
42. Rogers Brubaker, Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), p. 51.
43. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (London: Verso, 1983), p. 6.
44. Margaret Canovan, Nationhood and Political Theory (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 1998), p. 72.
45. Ibid., p. 69. Italics in the original.
46. Anthony D. Smith, Ethnic Origins of Nations (New York: Blackwell, 1987), p. 380.
47. Charles Tilly, "The State of Nationalism," Critical Review, Vol. 10, No. 2 (1996), p. 300.
48. B. Singer, "Cultural versus Contractual Nations: Rethinking Their Opposition," History and Theory, Vol. 35, No. 3 (1996), pp. 309-37.
49. Ibid., p. 310.
50. Charles Taylor, "The Politics of Recognition," in Amy Gutman (ed.), Multiculturalism and the "Politics of Recognition," (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), p. 25.
51. Ibid., p. 34.
52. Lynch, State Interests, p. 23.
53. James Tully, "Introduction," in Alain G. Gagnon and James Tully (eds.), Multinational Democracies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), p. 25.
54. Ibid., p. 25.
55. Quintan Wiktorowicz, "The Limits of Democracy in the Middle East: The Case of Jordan," Middle East Journal, Vol. 53 (1999), pp. 606-20.
56. Istiqaalat al-Sayid Abu 'Odeh (Resignation of Mr. Abu 'Odeh), Tariq Masaarwah, al-Ra'i, 9 April 2000.
57. Abu''Odeh...Uqeel am Istaqaal? (Abu 'Odeh... Dismissed or Resigned?), Sheyhaan, 8 April 2000.
58. Izdiwajiya al-Jinsiyya (Dual Nationality), al-Ra'i, 5 Jan. 2000
59. Ma'a Izdiwajiyya al-Jinsiyya (In Favor of Dual Nationality), al-'Arab al-Yom, 12 Jan. 2000
60. Rafd Izdiwajiyaa al-Jinsiyya lil-Laji'in wal-Nazihin fil-Urdun (Refusal of Dual Citizenship for Refugees and Displaced Persons in Jordan), al-Ra'i, 23 Feb. 2000.
61. Fi Nadwa Ghaza... Min Huwa al-Filastini? (At the Gaza Conference ... Who is the Palestinian?), al-'Arab al-Yom, 26 Feb. 2000.
62. "Israel to Introduce Palestinian Poetry in Schools," Jordan Times 3-4 March 2000
63. Lam Akun A'alam an al-Sh'ir Qawi wa-an Israel Dha'eefa ila hatha al-Had (I Did Not Know that Poetry Was So Strong and Israel Was So Weak), (quote from Mahmoud Darwish) al-Ra'i, 9 March 2000.
64. There is little empirical data on the approximate size of each group, although it is fair to say that few Palestinian Jordanians support their own political marginalization or disenfranchisement in Jordan. The Transjordanian nationalist camp, obviously, includes few Palestinian Jordanians. Pluralists would include the majority of Palestinian Jordanians, but also many Transjordanians who believe that Jordanian identity need not be exclusionary.
65. Within the grouping of Transjordanian nationalist, there are more moderate and more radical factions, based on how narrowly the Transjordanian identity can be drawn.
66. Personal interview, 2005 Aug.
67. Mary C. Wilson, [I King Abdullah, Britain and the Making of Jordan I], (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), p. 55.
68. Eugene L. Rogan, [I Frontiers of the State in Late Ottoman Empire: Transjordan, 1850-1921 I] (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 75.
69. Andrew Shryock, "Tribes and the Print Trade: Notes from the Margins of Literate Culture in Jordan," [I American Anthropologist I], Vol. 98, No. 1 (1996), pp. 26-40.
70. Brand, "Crisis of Identity," p. 51.
71. Massad, p. 271.
72. The anonymous memorandum, entitled "The Jordanian-Palestinian Relationship: The Issue of Palestinian Refugees, Resettlement and Allegations of Deficient Rights," was distributed by the Jordanian Nationalist Movement (al-tayaar al-watani al-urduni) to news outlets and prominent Jordanian politicians in Amman in 2000 Sept. No author, or authors, came forward to claim the document, but its tenets clearly stake out the Transjordanian nationalist view, albeit a somewhat extreme one.
73. [I Al-Wataniyya al-Urduniyya I], (Jordanian Nationalism) Fahd al-Fanek, al-Ra'i, 30 Nov. 1999.
74. Personal Interview, Amman, Jordan, 2000 Oct.
75. Additional articles refer to children born in the Kingdom to parents of "unknown" citizenship, "found" children and the tribes in the southern region of Jordan that were incorporated into the country in 1930. The phrase "other than Jews" was added to deflect property lawsuits from Jews who had brought property in Transjordan prior to 1948. Hasan al-Hadawi, [I Al-Jinsiyya wa-Ahkamiha fi al-Qanoon al-Urduni I] (Nationality and its Provisions in Jordanian Law) (Amman 1993), p. 216.
76. Jordanian Constitution, (1952) from Albert Blaustein and Gilbert Flanz (eds.), [I Constitutions of the World I] (New York: Oceana Publications, 1984).
77. "al-Dawla al-Urduniyya bayn al-Jinsiyya wa-al-Muwaatana" (The Jordanian State between Nationality and Citizenship), al-Dustour, 20 May 1999.
78. Personal interview, Amman Jordan, 2000 Sept.
79. Personal interview, Amman Jordan, 2000 Oct.
80. Personal interview, Amman Jordan, 2000 Oct.
81. Hawul Juthoor al-Watniyya al-Urduniyya," Yusuf 'Abdullah, al-Ra'i, 24 Nov. 1999.
82. Massad, p. 263.
83. Massad, p. 263. Most Jordanians (of all origins) do in fact identify based on their father's identity. Massad's point, however, is still well taken: If the mother's identity "counted," it would be a much more complicated identity picture.
84. Personal interview, Amman Jordan, 2000 Oct.
85. Personal interview, Amman Jordan, 2000 Oct.
86. Personal interview, Amman Jordan, 2000 Oct.
87. Laurie Brand briefly mentions the term in a footnote in her 1995 article "Palestinians and Jordanians: A Crisis of Identity." However, I rarely came across the term, either in public discourse or in interviews. This individual defined it for me only after a direct question but appeared to wave off the concept because his writings about Jordanian identity had landed him in court, accused of harming national unity by the regime.
88. This coincides with Uri Davis' concept of "right of abode" in his work on citizenship in the Middle East. See cite in note 9.
89. Israel has clearly and consistently stated its opposition to full-scale return of refugees and their descendents, preferring compensation and a vastly circumscribed return.
90. Personal interview, Amman, Jordan, 2000 Oct.
91. Personal interview, Amman Jordan, 2000 Oct. This individual added that, although people may accept that the refugees will not return, they don't necessarily believe that it is a just state of affairs.
92. "al-Dawla al-Urduniyya bayn al-Jinsiyya wa-al-Muwaatana" (The Jordanian State between Nationality and Citizenship), al-Dustour, 20 May 1999.
93. "An Opinion Poll: The Jordanian-Palestinian Relationship," Center for Strategic Studies (Amman: University of Jordan, 1995), p. 3.
94. Of Transjordanians, 65% reported a large degree of integration and 24% reported a medium degree of integration. Of Palestinian Jordanians, 72% reported a large degree of integration and 23% reported a medium degree of integration. Only 5% of the Transjordanian sample and 3% of the Palestinian Jordanian sample reported "no integration."
95. Personal interview, 2000 Oct.
96. Abu 'Odeh, p. 266.
97. Palestinian Jordanian journalist, Amman Jordan, 2000 Sept.
98. "Iraqis in Jordan: Their Number and Characteristics," Fafo Institute in cooperation with the Jordanian Department of Statistics (2007 Nov.), http://www.fafo.no/ais/middeast/jordan/IraqisinJordan.htm [accessed 14 Nov. 2007].
99. Stefanie Nanes, "Jordan's Unwelcome Guests," Middle East Report, Vol. 37:(3), No. 244 (Fall 2007), pp. 22-4.
100. Jillian Schwedler, "Don't Blink: Jordan's Democratic Opening and Closing," MERIP Online (3 July 2002), http://www.merip.org/mero/ mero070302.html [accessed 12 Nov. 2007].
101. Ibid.