Gazan teachers ‘will not lose their jobs’ in private schools

AMMAN — The government decision not to allow guest workers to serve in private schools will not include Gazans who hold temporary passports.

In a statement carried by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, the Ministry of Education said that “there is no change to status quo of Gazans working in private schools, who hold temporary passports and have previously signed employment contracts” with these schools.

However, the ministry is committed to implement the Labour Ministry’s decision to keep teaching jobs off-limit to other nationalities.

Hundreds of Gazans have lost their jobs in private schools under a recent government decision to restrict work in a number of professions to Jordanians who hold national ID numbers. 

While the move was meant to streamline the labour market, critics were loud in denouncing labelling Gazans, who hold temporary passports and are supposed to be enjoying certain privileges, as guest workers. 

Omar Kollab, head of a committee that follows up on Gazans' issues in Jordan, told The Jordan Times that the issue “has been officially solved” with the ministry’s clarification.

"I met with Education Minister Mohammad Thneibat today and he assured me that the decision will not include holders of temporary passports," Kollab said.

Earlier this week, the committee had sent a letter to Royal Court Chief Fayez Tarawneh pleading to reverse the decision.

Kollab said that he learnt that Tarawneh had taken action on the plea. 

“The ministry’s statement is clear: Gazans employed in private schools will keep their jobs and other nationalities, like Syrians, Egyptians and others are not allowed to take a teaching job,” the activist explained. 

In earlier remarks, he noted that there are about 856 Gazans serving in private schools in the Kingdom.

Dozens of teachers affected by the decision staged a sit-in at the entrance of the ministry earlier Thursday, holding placards stressing their loyalty to Jordan and rejecting being treated as foreign labourers.

“Gazans are not here by their choice and cannot go back to their country even if they want to. They are also not guest workers and should not be treated this way,” Ahmad Awad, director of the Phoenix Centre for Economic and Informatics Studies told The Jordan Times on Wednesday.

Some reports estimate the number of Gazans in Jordan at around 150,000.

After the 1967 Israeli-Arab war, Israel occupied the West Bank, which was under Jordan’s administration, and Gaza, which was under Egyptian rule since the aftermath of the 1948 war. 

Palestinians who fled the West Bank to Jordan in 1967 were considered “displaced” as they had already been Jordanian citizens since 1949 when the Nationality Law was changed to grant residents of the West Bank the Jordanian nationality. 

The “temporary passport” means that Gazans and their dependents are temporary residents in Jordan and provides them with an international travel document. 

Kollab said that the committee “still has 15 demands to discuss with authorities as rights of Gazans we seek to achieve”.