To Queen Rania of Jordan

Queen Rania of Jordan,

It was interesting to watch your interview about the Swords of Iron war with CNN’s influencer Christiane Amanpour. I have decided to write this letter because I would like to invite you to put aside the old, wicked clichés and blood libel you have vented in your interview and welcome you to the real world.

Before that, however, I must stress to you how aghast I was when you were asked how you felt as a human being and a mother about the massacre of October 7:  you were unable to utter a single word in relation to the well-documented suffering of Israelis in the hands of Palestinian terrorists. This is how you summed up yourself as a human being and a mother.

Back to the real world, it was blatant how much you use the Palestinian narrative for your egoistical interests, including the fact that the Hashemites represent a tiny minority of the population, yet control your country.

Since you seemed so uneducated about the country in which you are a queen, I will set the record straight for you here.

About the time you were born, your father-in-law, King Hussein, commenced the Black September in your Jordan when his legitimacy as a ruler was put into question. This was one of the deadliest battles against the Palestinians. Indeed, the Black September cost the lives of some 20,000 Palestinian refugees according to a source you probably trust, Yasser Arafat. Yes, Queen Rania, your family has blood on its hands.

And yes, Queen Rania, in 1970, decades after what you called Nakba, there were still Palestinian refugees in Jordan, as is still the case. This is due to the fact that your King Hussein always kept Palestinians in concentration camps to create a narrative that would put pressure on Israel and the international community. Neither your father-in-law, nor your husband, King Abdullah II, nor you ever wanted to resolve the Palestinian issue. This is why you never absorbed Palestinians and Jordanians of Palestinian origin into society.

In your very own undemocratic Jordan, Palestinians live under an apartheid regime. Jordanians of Palestinian origin suffer in all branches as your Hashemite husband, King Abdullah II, dominates all forms of policymaking. In the legislative branch, Jordanian citizens of Palestinian origin are underrepresented in the lower house even though they represent the majority of the Jordanian population. This is the lower house that may be dissolved at any time by your husband at any time. The upper house is laughable because again it is run in practice by your husband who appoints all of its members to the detriment of Palestinian representation. The executive branch is once again the domain of your husband, undermining the representation of Jordanians of Palestinian origin. Given that Jordan bans political parties based on ethnicity, Jordanians of Palestinian origin are prohibited from organizing themselves politically. They also face repression when joining any political party. From the perspective of the judiciary, your husband, the king, unilaterally appoints the entire constitutional court and the chair of the judicial council, where Jordanians of Palestinian origin are again not represented.

Jordan’s apartheid goes on. Jordanians of Palestinian origin may have their citizenship revoked and cannot generally have jobs in the public sector and security forces. Palestinian refugees are banned from law and engineering, for example.

In turn, Palestinian children have no access to free primary and secondary education. Palestinians also pay higher tuition fees and face fiercer competition due to the limited spaces available to them at universities.

Palestinian refugees cannot even sell and buy real estate or open a bank account in Jordan. Lecture the world about apartheid!

Queen Rania, this is the reality of the country you represent. Jordan is the root cause of the Palestinian issue. So much so that it has made clear that will not absorb the Gazans for which you feel so much pity. These are probably the double standards you meant.

Think about Israel for a moment now. When hundreds of thousands of Jews were expelled from Arab countries without any of their possessions, Israel absorbed them. There was no Jewish refugee crisis, and they became part of Israeli society.

Your father-in-law and your husband could have done the same alongside their counterparts in Egypt and Syria: there would not be a single Palestinian refugee in the world. You and your husband have an opportunity to end the Palestinian refugee crisis now and for good. You do not take advantage of it because it does not suit your purposes.

There are so many other flawed and maliciously false points of your interview that I could address here – endlessly. However, the world knows that you have a true answer for each one of them within. They just do not go well with your narrative and obsession to stay in power indefinitely. Consider this.

Sincerely,

Aharon Gottlieb