“HRW’s report included several fallacies and allegations which have no legal or real backing,” Minister of State for Media Affairs Nabil Sharif said in a statement.
“The Interior Ministry does not have the legal authority to withdraw the nationality of any citizen,” he added.
Sharif was responding to a HRW report released in Amman on Sunday whereby the world human rights watchdog called on the Jordanian authorities to stop the “arbitrary withdrawal” of nationalities from Palestinian-origin citizens.
The HRW estimated that Jordan withdrew nationality from at least 2,700 Palestinian-origin citizens between 2004 and 2008 and said the practice continued throughout 2009.
“Jordan is playing politics with the basic rights of thousands of its citizens,” said Sarah Leah Whiston, HRW Middle East director.
Sharif said that the cases of nationality withdrawal were nothing more than “a correction of status” dictated by the 1988 decision to sever Jordan’s legal and administrative ties with the West Bank which was approved before hand by Arab leaders in their previous summit conferences.
“The decision had the aim of preserving the Palestinian identity and forcing Palestinians to stick to their land with the avowed aim of derailing (Israeli) schemes which seek to empty Palestinian territories of their population and consequently Judaizing them,” Sharif said.
