Jordan

Background

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has been an extremely important player in both the tension and subsequent attempt at reconciliation between the Arab nations and Israel in the past fifty years. Like many other countries in the region, Jordan was not an independent nation previous to the First World War. Following the war, France and Great Britain divided up the defeated Ottoman Empire between themselves, and the various provinces of the empire were renamed "mandates." Partly to serve as a source of stability east of the Jordan River against potential dissident tribes and as an obstacle to the spread of French influence, the British set up the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan with a capital at Amman. The territory of this new kingdom included part of the Palestinian mandate, and its King was Abdullah, a son of the Amir of Mecca. Although a constitution was proclaimed in 1928 allowing Abdullah to officially serve as a traditional monarch of his country, Jordan was basically under the indirect rule of Britain (Cleveland 155-157) until 1946, when it gained its independence. Abdullah constantly pushed to expand his territory and also attempted to play a role in the carving out of the Palestinian mandate, but his willingness to work with Zionist leaders in this alienated him from the rest of the Arab world (Cleveland 199-201).

In their discussions over the fate of Palestine, the Palestinian Arab community was without effective leadership in the late 1930's and 40's. This responsibility of representing the Palestinians fell upon the Arab league, and these nations, faced with domestic anti-imperialist unrest, had to demonstrate a hard-line, uncompromising policy. They thus rejected a UN partition plan for the mandate in 1947. Following the proclamation of Israel's statehood in 1948, the armies of Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Trans-Jordan invaded Israel and were almost immediately repulsed. Palestine at this point was effectively divided between Egypt, Transjordan, and Israel, with Transjordan controlling the West Bank and part of Jerusalem.. This war contributed greatly to the mass flight of refugees from Palestine and their crowding into refugee camps in various Arab states (Cleveland 248-249). This was soon to become a very significant issue. In June of 1967, Jordan was coerced by Syria and Egypt into entering a war against Israel. This war, which was mainly brought about by the brinkmanship of President Nasser in Egypt, resulted again in a crushing Arab defeat. In losing the entire West Bank, Jordan lost its part of Jerusalem and much of its settled population, while gaining many more Palestinian refugees (Cleveland 317-322).

Yet, Jordan, in contrast to other Arab countries, offered citizenship to its Palestinian inhabitants, and many Palestinians found employment in Jordan. However, the Palestinian presence also posed many problems for the Kingdom of Jordan (renamed in 1948). Abdullah himself was viewed as an accomplice of the west by many Palestinians and was assassinated in 1951 as a result (Cleveland 311). His grandson, King Hussein, also faced difficulties. Palestinian resistance continuously launched raids into Israel from bases in Jordan which provoked an Israeli military response into Jordan. In 1970, in an effort to eliminate this direct threat to his authority, Hussein ordered his troops to restore order, resulting in a brief civil war and the death of many Palestinians. This greatly antagonized both the Palestinians and PLO (Cleveland 331).

Conflict also surrounded the issue of who represented the Palestinians in the West Bank, Jordan or the PLO. In 1972, King Hussein proposed a plan for a federated "United Arab Kingdom", consisting of the West Bank and Gaza, with him as the sovereign. The plan was met with open hostility by the other Arab nations and the PLO. However, relations did not remain strained. By 1974, Hussein agreed to recognize the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. In the late 1970's, Jordan and the PLO were brought closer together by the emergence of a right-wing government in Israel which sought to keep out both Jordanian and PLO influence from the West Bank. In the early 80's, several agreements were signed between King Hussein and Arafat. King Hussein constantly attempted to terminate the Middle East conflict by trying to bring the PLO and Israel to the negotiation table. However, both sides were reluctant for various reasons. In 1987, upon the outbreak of intifada in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Hussein realized that achieving any sort of control over the West Bank was an impossibility and gave up all claim to the region. It turned out that Jordan's decision to give up on the West Bank, in addition to improving its relations with the PLO, also removed the major barrier to a political settlement with Israel. Following the general elections of 1992 in Israel which brought the Labor Party back into power, Itzhak Rabin, the new Prime Minister, was determined to negotiate a peace settlement with the Arab World. This, in turn, resulted in the Oslo accords of 1993 which delineated an outline for peace, based on the concept of "peace for territory", between the PLO and Israel. This seeming solution to the Palestinian Problem (which had been a precondition for Jordanian contact with Israel) precipitated a Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty, which was signed in Washington in 1994 (Nevo 19-25).

King Hussein has spent the past six months receiving cancer treatment in the U.S., returning to Jordan briefly last month to remove his brother, Hassan, as crown prince and replace him with Abdullah, his eldest son. Shortly after returning to the U.S. for more cancer treatment, King Hussein died of a failed bone marrow transplant. King Abdullah took the throne last weekend and remains to be tested as a world leader.

Goals

Currently, Jordan's involvement in the implementation of the Oslo Accords and other agreements aimed at resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict can be centered around a few significant points. A major problem that Jordan now faces is the immense number of refugees displaced during the wars of 1948 and 1967. Under the Oslo Agreement, the PLO stated the right to return for these refugees as a principle, but it has not described in detail how this return is to be carried out. In the absence of a concrete program, Israel agreed to the return of those displaced during the War of 1967, while delaying resolution to the issue of the 1948 refugees. The Palestinian leaders also agreed that the return of the 1967 refugees needs to be coordinated to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority's infrastructure, including needed public services. Although certain agreements have been made between Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, sticking points regarding the refugee issue remain. For example, Jordan considers Palestinians living in Jordan with citizenship as Jordanians, while the Palestinian Authority wants them to be considered Palestinian nationals as well. The Palestinian Authority also wants to limit the role of Jordan on this issue to prevent Jordanian intervention into their affairs. Jordan's demands for a compensation for absorbing the 1967 refugees is also an issue that has not been resolved. Although the refugee problem continues to exist, the Palestinian Authority's expanded power should allow them further room to negotiate with Jordan and Israel. It seems that the Palestinian Authority may be waiting for a recognition of its right to statehood before setting out to transform the "right to return" policy into reality (Klein 46-51).

The refugee issue is not the sole one causing difficulty. The Washington Declaration of 1994 which resulted from the Jordanian-Israeli Peace talks asserted Jordan's influential role in the Islamic holy shrines of Jerusalem. In effect, Jordan and Israel separated the political and religious questions regarding Jerusalem, with Israel retaining political sovereignty over East Jerusalem and Jordan attaining a strong religious influence over the city. This vexed the Palestinian Authority which believed these words to be an attempt to eliminate future Palestinian rule over the city. After all, the goal of the Palestinian Authority is a Palestinian state with a capital at Jerusalem. At the Islamic Conference Organization in 1994, the Jordanian position was defeated. The Palestinians were backed by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Morocco, and the final outcome of the conference was the assertion that "Jerusalem must be returned to Palestinian Sovereignty as it is the capital of Palestine" (Klein 47-61). Overall, the main issues for Jordan continue to be the refugee issue as well as its influence in Jerusalem.

Further Research

The above information was gathered from:

Cleveland, William L. A History of the Modern Middle East. Boulder: Westview Press, 1994.

Klein, Menachem. "Operating the Triangle by Bilateral Agreements". The Jordanian-Palestinian-Israeli Triangle: Smoothing the Path to Peace. Ed. By Joseph Ginat and Onn Winckler. Portland, Oregon: Sussex Academic Press, 1998.