Corruption Between Jordanians and Palestinians

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Perhaps the reader will agree with me that the Jordanian regime does not distinguish between a Jordanian and a Palestinian, but rather between a loyalist and a non-loyalist. But this does not stop it from using Jordanians and Palestinians alike as tools to prolong its own life and secure its continued mastery. It sows division and corruption between the children of a single people and a single nation, so that their unity does not disturb it by demanding rights and insisting on belonging to the nation and its fateful causes. The regime has proven its ability to play this role, and has succeeded in creating an atmosphere of tension and hatred between Palestinian and Jordanian. In this article, I address the policy of impoverishment and enrichment that it has pursued so that each side continues to see loyalty to the regime as its salvation.

Jordan is an unstable country despite the security appearance it presents; were it not for this fact, the regime would not be a security regime that allocates a large portion of the state budget to the security services, particularly the intelligence service. This is the case in every Arab state, including the Palestinian Authority, whose regimes cannot stand and endure without terrorizing and intimidating people through security apparatuses. This is why the regime sees the necessity of playing on the Jordanian-Palestinian issue in order to preserve itself, and perhaps before long it will play the Iraqi-Jordanian card as well.

From the outset, the regime worked to push Palestinians out of public sector jobs while opening the door of commerce to them, and opened the door of public employment to Jordanians while trying to keep them away from a life of wealth. This was in order to manufacture a culture we know in political science as the culture of fear-for and fear-of. That is, it pursued a policy that makes Palestinians fear for their money, and makes Jordanians fear losing their jobs, thereby binding both sides to itself and securing their loyalty founded on fear. Of course, loyalty founded on fear is no virtue, but the regime has no alternative, given its constant opposition to the causes of the nation and its plundering of the people’s money.

Under this policy, the Jordanian alone became the soldier, the employee in government departments and public institutions, the policeman, the one present in the security services, particularly the intelligence service. The Jordanian became an employee dependent on his salary, and the son of a salary is usually weak before his salary, and generally weak in his daily life because of a straitened livelihood. The salary alone is not enough and does not meet one’s needs, and it is, in the end, limited. The costs of living are exorbitant and constantly rising. What is the solution? Many Jordanian landowners decided to improve their situation by selling their land. To whom? To the Palestinian.

Look at West Amman and examine those opulent buildings, and you would find that most of their owners are Palestinians. There are Jordanians who own property too, but here we are talking about proportions.

These Palestinians bought the land from the Jordanians and built on it industrial and commercial projects. As for the Jordanian who received the price of the land, he spent the money on many daily needs, and so has generally ended up with neither land nor money. In general, the Jordanian did not invest the money, not because he does not know how to invest, but because his attachment to public employment prevented him from finding the necessary time. The Jordanian is intelligent and capable of forging his own path, keeping his land, farming it, and investing it, but the regime slowly and gradually besieged him until he became a slave to his salary.

The Jordanian finds no income better than his salary, and he must preserve his loyalty to the regime, even half-heartedly, so as not to find himself out in the street without a job. The Palestinian, meanwhile, has become the owner of large economic interests that he fears for and works to preserve. This is why he too has had to remain loyal to the regime, because the authorities are capable of wrecking the economic interests of anyone who opposes them.

This was not enough; it was also necessary to sow grudges between Jordanians and Palestinians, which obstructs the process of becoming aware of the regime’s policies. Jordanian intelligence has spread division, corruption, and mutual spoiling between the two sides over the course of decades, until each side can no longer stand the other and sees in it a terrifying enemy. Wherever you go in Jordan, you hear people talking about the “Jordanian-Palestinian” issue, as if the people were two separate parts, each trying to deny the other’s right to life.

If every Jordanian and every Palestinian were to examine himself over the reasons for this hatred, he would discover that it is foolish and trivial, and that he has been dragged into positions with no justification. What justification is there for a Jordanian to hate a Palestinian, or a Palestinian a Jordanian? There are respectable, good Jordanians, and there are respectable, good Palestinians. And there are scoundrels on both sides. Jordanians are not angels, nor are Palestinians prophets clothed in pure white. The wicked and the good are found everywhere, among all the peoples of the earth, throughout time.

The regime wanted to entrench this hatred, and it trains its intelligence officers in infernal methods so as to convince the Palestinian that the Jordanian is ugly, while it plants in Jordanians the idea that Palestinians want to seize control of Jordan. This is a repugnant and shameful thing, and it must be fought. Palestinians and Jordanians are one people, and they must remain so.

The policy of divide and rule must be rejected, and the malicious policies of the regime and its masters must be recognized. Everyone must remain a single hand, so that life becomes more cooperative, more loving, and more collaborative. The hand of God is with the collective, and through the collective, security and mastery are achieved for all.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “الإفساد بين الأردنيين والفلسطينيين” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.