Jordan: The Competition of Different Constituencies

Abstract

In April 2006, the Jordanian government denied the right of return to its jurisdiction of several members of the Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS), an Islamist organizat ion that champions the cause of Palestinian liberation from Israeli occupation, despite their current Jordanian citizenship, on ground that the law prohibits membership of non-Jordanian organizations.¹ This incident was indicative of the multi-leveled problems that beset Jordan’s appreciation of its own sovereignty. The spectacle it provided of the tenuous guarantee of Jordanian citizenship moved H amza Mansur, an Islamist member of parliament, to declare his desire for a time when his passport will proclaim only his Arab and Islamic lineage (nasab).