The Hashemite Kingdom is an ethnically diverse state largely composed of two main identity groups: “indigenous” Jordanians and “foreign” Palestinians. Many say the country is majority Palestinian at this point and the capital city, Amman, is a clear center of Palestinian life and culture.
These divisions of “indigenous” versus “foreign” and Palestinian-Jordanian versus Jordanian-Jordanian are widely contested based on a number of factors ranging from fundamental pillars of state, common identity as Greater Syria under the Ottomans, and resistance against Israeli occupation and erasure of Palestinian life. These undercurrent tensions between nationality, identity, and citizenship are what I hope to illuminate in my research. My Friday beginning in Amman and ending in the desert of southern Jordan was a perfect embodiment of these complex dynamics.
