Jordanians discriminating against Palestinians? Perish the thought!

From the NYT:

The Syrian conflict could worsen one of Jordan’s deep domestic schisms, between citizens of Palestinian descent and so-called East Bank Jordanians.

The government seems set on not letting more Palestinians enter.

Jordanian officials strongly deny that they turn back Palestinian refugees. In a report this month, an Interior Ministry official told Human Rights Watch that Jordan had not “sent any Palestinians back, period.” Near the border, though, refugees said they had seen it happen.

A Kurdish woman from Damascus said that when she and her family reached the border a few days ago, they met a Palestinian man and his two children going the other way. The father said Jordanian officers patrolling the frontier had told him he could not enter.

And to think that Jordan was the only Arab country to allow Palestinian Arabs to become citizens in 1948. I guess the honeymoon is over. (Actually, it has been since at least 1967, when Jordan tried to get rid of the Palestinian Arabs who did not want to live under Israeli rule. The Gazans who fled to Jordan then were never given citizenship.)

But don't call this apartheid. That term has a very specific use in the Middle East.

Of course, the NYT is late to notice this. See also here and here.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)