Summary
The amendment ratified on 25 July 1939 which, in Banko’s account, for the first time gave Palestinian-born Arabs resident abroad who had maintained an ‘unbroken personal connection with Palestine’ the opportunity to opt for Palestinian citizenship, and provided that an alien woman married to a Palestinian citizen would receive naturalisation on separate terms from her husband (The Invention of Palestinian Citizenship, 1918–1947, PDF p.217 / printed p.206).
Details
- Drafts started by both the Palestine Administration and the Colonial Office in 1937, in response to the Peel Commission recommendations, floated between the Colonial, Foreign and Home Offices until 1939; in May 1939 High Commissioner Harold MacMichael accepted the final draft, the administration initially intending it to end the nearly decade-long debate over naturalisation of women separately from their husbands, although its Article 6 stated the citizenship status of women was governed by their husbands (PDF p.216 / printed p.205).
- As ratified on 25 July 1939, its primary change revoked the Palestine Citizenship Order (Amendment) 1931 order’s Article 12: an alien woman married to a Palestinian citizen did not become Palestinian by reason of marriage but would receive a certificate of naturalisation on separate terms (PDF p.217 / printed p.206).
- Its amended Article 2 benefited exclusively Palestinian Arabs: those who possessed Ottoman nationality on the date of the 1925 Order, or continued to hold Turkish citizenship, and who had ‘since maintained an unbroken personal connection with Palestine and intend to resume permanent residence in Palestine’ could opt for citizenship, with the Government of Palestine’s consent, holding no nationality other than Turkish, within two years, applying through any British consul to the Director of Immigration in Jerusalem (PDF p.217 / printed p.206).
- Banko presents it as a significant victory meeting the demands of the emigrants and their lobby, less than two years after the Peel recommendations; the Home Office held the Treaty of Lausanne allowed states to offer such options in cases the treaty itself did not provide for (PDF p.217 / printed p.206).
- A final amendment in 1942 extended the two-year option timeframe to six years; nevertheless, from 1925 to 1946 fewer than 500 native Palestinian Arabs living outside Palestine returned and acquired citizenship, which Banko, following Mutaz M. Qafisheh, attributes in part to high commissioners’ discretion over proof of an ‘unbroken personal connection’ and to wartime immigration restrictions after 1939 (PDF p.218 / printed p.207).
Related pages
The Invention of Palestinian Citizenship, 1918–1947, Palestine Citizenship Order-in-Council 1925, Palestine Citizenship Order (Amendment) 1931, Peel Commission, Palestinian Arab diaspora