Jordan denies depriving Palestinians of nationality

The Jordanian Ministry of Interior spokesman vigorously denied on Monday the news as  reported in the media that the Kingdom was depriving  Palestinians of their nationality and national identity number. Ziad Zoubi, in an interview with "Voice of Palestine" radio said: "there is no new instructions or intention to change or cancel  the 1988 disengagement decision or to withold nationalities. The spokesman refused to make a link between the Jordanian Interior Minister's recent visit to Palestine and the claimed news. He asserted "a Palestinian invitation was made to visit Palestinian territories and to supervise the Palestinian security forces training." A Jordanian newspaper quoted from  "responsible sources" in the Ministry of Interior, that Jordan approved an amendment to the 2011 instructions for the legal and administrative disengagement of Jordan from the West Bank, which was released in 1988, and could affect about one million, six hundred thousand Palestinians. The 2011 instructions include the withholding of nationality or national identity number from those who have Palestinian documents and work for thPalestinian authority or travel through Israeli airports as well as those who do not have Palestinian documents or have left the West Bank or Jerusalem for foreign countries without Palestinian documents. Moreover, the new instructions concern those who have  a valid or expired Israeli occupation document, green card owners,  and those who left Palestine between 1967 and 1988 and have Israeli identity or Arabic documents as well as those  who did not complete their mandatory military service.