TEL AVIV – Amid concerns that Jews might purchase property in Jordan, the head of the country’s lands administration affirmed that current law bars Israelis from doing so.
“Jordan does not allow Israeli ownership of lands and property anywhere in the country,” declared Mouein al Sayeg, director of the government’s lands administration.
“The Jordanian people fear an Israeli takeover of state lands,” al Sayej said. “These concerns are unwarranted and have been addressed by the law.”
“The lands administration monitors the nationality of potential buyers very closely,” he added.
“Foreign buyers are required to reveal their identity, so that we can prevent undesired nationalities from gaining a foothold in our property market.”
The blog Elder of Ziyon has been monitoring Jordanian news media and recently noted a spike in concern about Jews purchasing property, including conspiracy theories claiming there is a Jewish plot to take over the historic city of Petra, a popular tourist destination for Israelis.
The country’s Watan News website reported that Petra officials are attempting draft new laws restricting the selling of property not just to Israelis but to any Jews.
Last Sunday, a columnist for Ammon News advocated restrictions on all non-Jordanian investment in real estate to ensure against Jewish land transactions. He wrote:
“Israelis under these amendments can now buy land through Jews holding foreign nationality, and the requirement that the buyer reveals any other nationality is unrealistic, because no one is able to make sure the buyer doesn’t hold any other nationalities.”
What can be said here is that parliament has a duty to answer these amendments and prevent the sale of land in Petra to non-Jordanians, because all the other guarantees of a ban on sales to Israeli Jews are not convincing, and we know that there are Arab and international front men who will come to buy the land, but no one knows who he really represents.”
Jordan and Israel normalized relations more than two decades ago, but public opinion in the kingdom – more than a half of whose population is of Palestinian extraction – is hostile to the Jewish state.
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