JORDAN ELECTIONS: PALESTINIANS AND THEIR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 AMMAN 004584 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/17/2017 TAGS: JO PGOV PREL SUBJECT: JORDAN ELECTIONS: PALESTINIANS AND THEIR CANDIDATES TIPTOE THROUGH ELECTORAL MINEFIELDS REF: A. AMMAN 4430 ¶B. AMMAN 4320 ¶C. AMMAN 4559 ¶D. AMMAN 2668 Classified By: Classified by Ambassador David Hale for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Summary. Jordanians of Palestinian origin face difficult choices in the November 20 elections for Jordan's lower house of parliament. Candidates of Palestinian origin talk about unfairness in Jordan's electoral system and within Jordanian society, both of which lead to under-representation of Jordanian-Palestinians in parliament. Against this backdrop, voters must decide between staying home, voting for narrowly focused Palestinian-oriented candidates whose influence might be limited, or voting for East Bankers who can get things done. Discussions with candidates and voters reveal a perceived disconnect between East Bankers and Palestinian-origin Jordanians on the urgency of addressing Palestinian issues in Jordanian society. While Palestinian-origin candidates and their constituents seem eager to pursue an expanded political and social agenda that tackles core issues like perceived discrimination and identity, they must do so within the limits and sensitivities of the political system, the terms of which are largely set by East Bank politicians in the government. End Summary. A Stacked Deck -------------- ¶2. (C) One of Jordan's most difficult issues is the divide between citizens of Palestinian origin, and those who originate from the east side of the Jordan River. The issue is so electric that the government does not release accurate demographic statistics - because they would show that a majority of Jordanians are of Palestinian origin. This is an uncomfortable truth for East Bankers, who form the loyal base of the monarchy but resent that Hashemite hospitality and historic blunders have saddled Jordan with a sizable Palestinian-origin population whose leaders only a generation ago tried to seize the country through violence. ¶3. (C) On the other side of the coin, Palestinians living here have complicated and by no means monolithic attitudes toward their political status here and future identity. Until the 1989 election, Jordan's parliament included seats from West Bank districts - and Israeli occupation of them was one pretext for the absence of Jordanian elections from 1967 to 1989. Elections were made possible after Hussein's 1987 disengagement from the West Bank, and the removal of West Bank representation from Jordan's parliament. But neither the regime nor its East Bank constituency would stomach allowing Palestinians majority representation in Jordan after disengagement. So while all Palestinians living in Jordan have equal political rights with East Bankers on paper, in reality Jordan's electoral districting system denies them a fair share of parliamentary seats. ¶4. (SBU) For example, in the lower house, set-aside seats and electoral district boundaries favor rural voters and members of minority groups, many of whom are East Bank Jordanians. The Amman governorate, for example, is home to 38% of Jordan's population (including many of its Palestinian-origin residents),but only 24% of the seats in the lower house. Similarly, Zarqa claims 15% of Jordan's population (most of whom are Palestinian-origin),but only 11% of the seats. By contrast, the mostly East Banker district of Karak has only 4% of Jordan's population, but 11% of the seats in parliament. ¶5. (SBU) Twenty-seven members of the 110-seat lower house are assigned by a quota system to Christians, Chechens/Circassians, Bedouins, and women. The women's quota is filled by a formula that heavily favors candidates from rural areas, almost all of whom are East Bankers. Similarly, a total of two Christian seats are designated for the heavily Palestinian-origin districts of Amman and Zarqa - the rest are scattered throughout the countryside where the Palestinian presence is relatively low. Thus, it is very difficult for Palestinian-origin candidates to win the various quota seats and set-asides, which represent nearly a quarter of the parliament, though Palestinian-origin Jordanians are competitive candidates for the Christian-designated seats. ¶6. (SBU) The structure of Jordan's electoral system results in a disproportionate number of East Bankers in parliament. The upper house is composed entirely of royal appointees, and only six of the fifty-five members are of Palestinian origin. In the outgoing lower house, only eighteen of 110 seats were held by Palestinians. AMMAN 00004584 002 OF 005 Option One: Elect a Niche Candidate -------------- ¶7. (C) Due to the concentration of Palestinian-origin voters in refugee camps around the country, there are certain districts where candidates from that community are assured victory. The question is what those candidates can reasonably be expected to accomplish once in parliament. Experts disagree on the measure of independence and influence parliamentarians of Palestinian origin have. Former Irbid MP Saleh Shu'watah insists that he was not discriminated against as a Palestinian during his term in parliament in the late 1990s. Former Minister of Information and former royal court advisor Adnan Abu Odeh disagrees, saying that the government purposely pays little attention to parliamentarians of Palestinian origin, pointing to the small number of Palestinians in the cabinet and in other high ranking positions as proof. (Abu Odeh spent much of his career as the Royal Court's pet Palestinian.) ¶8. (C) One thing that most Palestinian origin candidates we have talked to can agree on is that due to the structure of Jordan's political system, Palestinian-related issues have little chance of breaking into the public arena. Because of the absence of serious political parties (other than the Muslim Brotherhood's IAF) and the presence of a "one man one vote" system which emphasizes tribal loyalties (REF A), meaningful political issues simply are not part of the campaign discourse. Many candidates have asserted to us that no matter how prominent Palestinian issues are in a candidate's campaign, there is little chance that they will be able to speak out on the sensitive issues of Palestinian-Jordanian identity and discrimination even if they reach parliament. Samir Owaiss, a Palestinian-origin candidate and frontrunner from Irbid, put it this way: "Even if you win, you will not win." Option Two: Investment Voting -------------- ¶9. (C) Faced with an unfavorable electoral predicament, many Jordanians of Palestinian origin sometimes choose East Bankers to represent them. According to Adnan Abu Odeh, of those candidates of Palestinian origin who win seats in parliament, none is likely to become an effective voice on behalf of Palestinian rights within Jordan. Even worse for them, parliamentarians of Palestinian origin are unlikely to have connections within Jordan's East Banker-dominated bureaucracy. Without tribal or family links to those who can grease the wheels of the state, Palestinian-origin lawmakers cannot succeed at the influence-peddling game that is the core of Jordan's parliamentary politics. In order to protect their clout with the government, some Palestinian-origin voters will throw their weight behind an East Bank candidate who has the family connections and a tribal pedigree necessary to bring home the spoils of government to the district. ¶10. (C) Abu Odeh, one of the most prominent thinkers on Palestinian civil life in Jordan, describes this as a "necessary bribe" and part of a larger societal deal in which East Bankers control the state and Jordanians of Palestinian origin dominate the business world. "Palestinians see their vote as an investment," Abu Odeh says. This investment system works because after casting ballots, these voters let candidate representatives - who monitor the voting in each of the voting stations - know that they voted for the representative's candidate and that they expect services in return. ¶11. (C) In certain districts, concentrations of Jordanians of Palestinian origin form a sort of swing vote. While tribal loyalty is a key factor for Jordanian-Palestinians and East Bankers alike (REF A),a Karak candidate reports that her East Bank base (won through her key role in many local charities) is supplemented by voters of Palestinian origin that she lures through both tribal loyalty and appeals to the Palestinian cause. Christian candidates (who are often of Palestinian origin) tell us that their campaign strategies often rely on a base of East Bankers supplemented by Palestinian-issue voters. In Irbid, we were told that Jordanians of Palestinian origin often parcel their votes around to a variety of candidates, of East Bank and West Bank origin, who compete for their allegiance. Option Three: Stay Home -------------- ¶12. (C) For those dissatisfied with the above options, many Jordanians of Palestinian origin - like their East Banker colleagues - have expressed to us their view that the AMMAN 00004584 003 OF 005 elections are a futile exercise (REF B). Faced with Palestinian-origin candidates who they fear will prove ineffective or East Banker candidates who they fear will misrepresent their true political interests, Palestinian-origin voters often see non-participation as a preferable option. Voter turnout in urban areas, which generally have large Palestinian-origin populations, are consistently under the national average. Low turnout in the big cities such as Amman and Irbid is a trend across the board, but it is a fact that few of our Palestinian-origin contacts in the Amman area say that they will go to the polls. While people will rarely state that the status of Palestinians in Jordan is a main cause for apathy, frustration or concern among Palestinian-origin voters, it seems to be a tacit sore point. It is compounded by the litany of issues cited by all Jordanians about the economy, lagging reform efforts, poor services or political in-fighting as cause for apathy. A disconnect between East Bank politicians and their often Palestinian-origin constituents seems to lie right below the surface. An Alternate Theory on Low Palestinian Turnout -------------- - ¶13. (C) Former Irbid MP Saleh Shu'watah has another theory about low turnout among Palestinian-origin Jordanians. He says that the phenomenon is mainly due to lack of voting by women in refugee camps. Due to the tribal nature of East Bank politics, women were often pressed into voting by their husbands, who promised to deliver a bloc of votes to the family's preferred candidate. In Palestinian-dominated areas, the emphasis on tribes is slightly lower, resulting in less compulsion and political socialization among Palestinian-origin women to vote for a chosen candidate. Over time, Shu'watah hypothesizes that this behavior has led to lower overall turnout in Palestinian-dominated areas. Does the Issue Have Traction? -------------- ¶14. (C) Candidates with whom we have spoken (whether Palestinian-origin or East Banker) have mixed assessments on whether the Palestinian issue motivates voters. A Palestinian-origin candidate in Madaba says that he includes boilerplate language about the right of return and opposing Israel in his campaign literature, but doubts that it has any impact. "People are more concerned about services and the economy," he reports. "Parliament has no power to influence foreign policy anyway." An East Bank candidate from Salt, referring to the local IAF candidate whose posters feature pictures of Al Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, says that campaigning on the Palestinian issue produces only "empty promises": "How can Parliament claim anything when it comes to Palestine?" A Palestinian-origin Christian candidate from Madaba highlights the fact that his brother was killed in 1967 ("for me, it's not just a slogan"),but acknowledges that voters are not as passionate as he is on the issue of Palestinian rights. A Palestinian-origin candidate in Karak known for her "anti-occupation poetry" says that the Palestinian issue is foremost on her mind, but admits that most voters are more interested in services. She tends to use the issue in face-to-face meetings, but it is relegated to a footnote in her printed campaign materials. ¶15. (C) A candidate in Irbid touched on anti-Palestinian discrimination as an underlying campaign issue for voters in his district, which includes a large refugee camp. He cited "lack of fairness" in dealings with the government as something that voters were concerned about. Still, he does not mention this in his campaign materials. His mentor, a former MP, told us that Palestinian-origin candidates have evolved, and that in the past they were unsuccessful because they spoke about the Palestinian issue almost exclusively. Not so in this election, where he said that Palestinian-origin candidates were focusing on the issues that matter to likely voters such as the economy (REF C). The former MP concluded also that younger voters are less politicized today and less connected to Palestinian identity as an issue, and that getting them to the polls is much harder, hence the increased focus on local economic and services issues by Palestinian-origin candidates. ¶16. (C) Regardless of their use or non-use of the Palestinian issue, no candidate is openly running a "Palestinian campaign". Quite the opposite - Palestinian-origin candidates we have talked to are keen to balance their identity with a steady flow of nationalist proclamations on the necessity of national unity or talk about the economy. In Amman, a Palestinian-origin candidate uses the slogan "my loyalty is to my identity and to my state". He says that the Palestinian issue plays a supporting role in his campaign, but he feels that he has to AMMAN 00004584 004 OF 005 include it in his literature and speeches. By balancing support of Palestinian causes with a healthy dose of Jordanian nationalism, he rounds out his message and appeals to a broader audience. A Palestinian-origin candidate from Madaba told us that "Palestine and Jordan are one front", and continually opined on the bonds between Palestinians and East Bankers. His platform is broadly nationalist (one of many candidates whose slogans include "Jordan First") rather than distinctly Palestinian. ¶17. (C) Few of the Palestinian-origin candidates we spoke to trumpet their identities explicitly. Instead, they rely on their family names and their standing in the community to indicate their identity to voters. One notable exception to this was Samir Owaiss, a candidate in Irbid, who on his campaign literature lists his country of origin as Palestine and his place of birth as Irbid, and who has a strong chance of winning a seat. His logo is a horse, which he explained was a known Palestinian symbol in the Haifa area where his family is from. Yet in spite of his open identification as a Palestinian, his platform placed heavy emphasis on economic policy. The IAF-Palestinian Nexus -------------- ¶18. (C) The Muslim Brotherhood,s (MB) political party, the Islamic Action Front (IAF),often fares well in urban population centers where Palestinians live. The IAF held seventeen seats in the previous parliament, including seven seats from six of the Amman districts, two from Irbid, and three from Zarqa, all cities with large Palestinian-origin populations. In the current election season, the IAF is fielding a smaller number of candidates who will largely count on Palestinian support. However, poor results in the IAF strongholds of Irbid, Zarqa and elsewhere during the July 31 municipal elections suggest that IAF support in general may be slipping. At least part of this is due to events in the Palestinian territories themselves. The Hamas takeover of Gaza, and the support initially extended by the IAF to Hamas, has driven a wedge between the IAF,s traditional Palestinian base in Jordan,s cities, many who view Hamas,s disrespect for symbols of Palestinian statehood as repugnant - such as stomping on photos of Yasser Arafat and raising Hamas flags in place of Palestinian flags (REF D). ¶19. (C) The IAF appeals to Palestinian voters by using rhetoric arguing for "resistance to the Zionist occupation of Palestine and the U.S. occupation of Iraq" and that "Islam is the Solution." The MB also relies on its social services wing to attract political support in Palestinian areas. Such service support institutions demonstrate the service-oriented campaign themes of the IAF by improving the daily lives of Palestinian-origin Jordanians. The party platform also highlights the issues of corruption, poverty, and unemployment - issues which are broadly recognized, but acutely felt in Palestinian areas. (Broader IAF politics and the impact of Palestinian voters on urban areas will be reported septel.) A De Facto Palestinian Quota? -------------- ¶20. (C) Conventional wisdom amongst many of the candidates we have spoken to is that the government and intelligence services have set aside certain seats as "Palestinian seats," and are actively supportive of Palestinian-origin candidates who trumpet national unity. In Madaba, Palestinian-origin candidates we talked to all claimed that one of their number was virtually guaranteed to be elected, citing "the government's will" as the main reason. An East Banker candidate in Karak said that the concentration of Palestinian votes was an indirect effect of the "one man one vote" system, which has the effect of concentrating Palestinian support in certain regions and supporting East Bank tribes in all other areas. A former MP from Irbid's first district, which encompasses a large refugee camp, remarked that all four of the district's seats could be won by Palestinian-origin candidates if the government didn't influence the outcome. Instead, he expects that at least one East Bank candidate will prevail in spite of the overwhelming Palestinian-origin presence in the district. ¶21. (C) Most Palestinian-origin candidates we talked to acknowledge that their reach outside of the Palestinian community is limited. In Irbid and Madaba, we were told that while Palestinian-origin candidates concentrated mostly on refugees and votes from Palestinian tribes, they also had to appeal to the general population. Conversely, East Bank candidates ran more general campaigns that touched on the Palestinian issue while not making it a central theme. So whether or not the claims about government influence on AMMAN 00004584 005 OF 005 behalf of East Bankers are true, there are differences in campaign strategies of Palestinian-origin candidates and their East Bank neighbors. Comment -------------- ¶22. (C) The issues dividing East and West Bankers are not about support for the Palestinian cause or a Palestinian state. Most East Bankers advocate a two state solution, fervent in their hope that it will rid them of the Palestinians, or at least force the Palestinians to take a stand on their nationality, Jordanian or not, once and for all. However, until a two state solution emerges, both East Bankers and Palestinian-origin Jordanians often have ambivalent views about Palestinian political activism here. East Bank conservatives would argue that giving Palestinians an equal share of power before there is a Palestinian state would be an invitation to them to play out "foreign" Palestinian politics - Hamas vs Fatah - in East Bank political institutions. Until the question of the ultimate loyalty and identity of Palestinians here is resolved through Palestinian statehood, many East Bankers resist reforms that would empower Palestinian-Jordanians. ¶23. (C) Palestinians in Jordan have also acquired defense mechanisms and attitudes that reinforce their distance from the political game. When the King tried to encourage a group of young, reform oriented businessmen - by definition a Palestinian-dominated crowd - to form a political party, they reacted negatively. They had absorbed the lesson of their fathers' generation: if Palestinian-Jordanians organize politically, even on non-Palestinian issues, they risk re-opening wounds in this society and inviting attacks upon them as "foreigners." ¶24. (C) The issues dividing East Bankers and West Bankers in Jordan are about power and identity. These are too hot to handle in Jordan's otherwise tepid current political climate. By an unwritten compact forged after the 1970 civil war and reinforced by the 1987 disengagement decision, most elements of society have agreed to keep those issues out of the country's political discourse. That is the root of why Jordanian politics often appear detached from real issues, and a major factor compelling politicians to focus on little more than constituent services in their campaigns, and in office. ¶25. (C) Even the Muslim Brotherhood traditionally has played by that rule book, despite their electoral base in the Palestinian community. After the Hamas electoral victory in PA elections in 2006, some Jordanian MB leaders began to talk about replicating that result in Jordan. By seeking a real power shift and casting it in Palestinian terms, they blundered, widening the rift between Jordanian nationalists and Palestinian radicals in their own movement, disturbing a domestic political tranquillity most Jordanians find comforting, and giving the intelligence directorate an opening they are manipulating still today. It is no coincidence that the MB/IAF slate of candidates in 2007 is almost universally stacked with East Bank nationalists who pose no real risk to the unwritten compact in this society. ¶26. (C) Palestinian-origin candidates toe a fine line between appealing to the concerns of their community on collective rights and discrimination while satisfying the system so as to stand a chance of being elected. Palestinian-origin voters face a similar dilemma: they can vote for one of their own to represent them, possibly ineffectively, on parochial and/or national-level issues of concern, or they can send an East Banker to parliament who can deal with their more concrete need for services and better economic opportunities at the local level - the two key issues dominating the political discussion among all Jordanians, regardless of origin. Hale