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The West Bank and East Jerusalem were ruled by Jordan for a period of nearly two decades (1948 - 1967) following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. They were under Jordanian occupation between 1948 and 1950; with British approval, Jordan annexed them in 1950.
This annexation was not officially recognized by most countries, the United Kingdom (but not, as is however often said, Pakistan) being an exception.
Jordanian conquest of 1948
According to the 1947 UN Partition Plan, a large part of Palestine including the areas that came under Jordanian control were to have become an independent Arab state, but neither the Palestinians nor any Arab state accepted the partition. On 10 May, Golda Meir represented the Yishuv in the last of a series of clandestine meetings between the Zionists and Transjordan's King Abdullah that had taken place over the previous two years. Whereas for months there had been a tacit agreement between the Zionists and Transjordan to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, with Transjordan taking over the Arab areas, at the May 10 meeting Abdullah offered the Yishuv leadership only autonomy within an enlarged Hashemite kingdom. This was unacceptable to the Jewish leadership. However, Meir was left with the impression that Abdullah would make peace with a Jewish state (Morris, 1999, p. 221) and in fact the Transjordanian army did refrain from attacking the designated Jewish areas of Palestine in the ensuing war. As early as 1946 Abdullah had informed Alec Kirkbride, the British Resident in Amman, that he and his prime minister Ibrahim Pasha Hashim were in favour of partition and an exchange of populations between Transjordan and the Jewish state-to-be (Morris, 2003, p. 58). Following the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, May 14, 1948, seven Arab states attacked the newly formed Jewish State. Although nominally the leaders of the attack, the Jordanian Arab Legion under the leadership of Sir John Bagot Glubb, known as Glubb Pasha, was given orders to not enter the terroritory of the Jewish state defined by the partition plan. It was also initially ordered to stay out of Jerusalem, but this order was reversed when it became clear that Israel was attempting to take the city. See May 15, 1948 - June 11, 1948.
"A key feature of the Arabs' plans was the complete marginalization of the Palestinians... This aptly reflected the political reality: The military defeats of April-May had rendered them insignificant. The Arab League through the first half of 1948 had consistently rejected Husseini's appeals to establish a government-in-exile... Under strong pressure from Egypt, which feared complete Hashemite control over the Palestinians, the League Political Committee in mid-September authorized the establishment of a Palestinian 'government.'" (Benny Morris, Righteous Victims)
On September 22, 1948, the All-Palestine Government was established in Gaza captured by Egypt, and on September 30, the rival First Palestinian Congress, which promptly denounced the Gaza "government", was convened in Amman.
By the end of the war, Jordan forces had occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem. On April 3 1949, Israel and Jordan signed an Armistice Agreement. The main points included:
- Jordanian forces remained in most positions they held in the West Bank, including Arab East Jerusalem, and the Old City.
- Jordan withdrew its forces from its front posts overlooking the Plain of Sharon. In return, Israel agreed to allow Jordanian forces to take over positions in the West Bank previously held by Iraqi forces.
- A Special Committee was to be formed to make arrangements for safe movement of traffic between Jerusalem and Mount Scopus campus of Hebrew University, along the Latrun-Jerusalem Highway, free access to the Holy Places, and other matters.
The remainder of the area that had been designated as Arab under the partition plan was partly occupied by Egypt (the Gaza Strip), partly occupied and annexed by Israel (West Negev, West Galilee, Jaffa). The intended international enclave of Jerusalem was divided between Israel and Jordan, both eventually annexing their portions.
During this period, Jordan's rulers regarded themselves as the rightful heirs to the whole of Palestine. Rather than attempting to establish an independent Palestinian state for its West Bank subjects, it formally annexed East Jerusalem and the West Bank on April 24, 1950, giving all resident Palestinians automatic Jordanian citizenship. (They had already received the right to claim Jordanian citizenship in December 1949.) Only the United Kingdom formally recognized the annexation of the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem. (Pakistan is usually stated to have recognized Jordan's acts also but this is apparently false *.)
Jordanian rule
Unlike any other Arab state to where Palestinian refugees fled, those in the West Bank and East Jerusalem were given Jordanian citizenship along with the existing residents. However, many of the refugees continued to live in camps and rely on UNRWA for sustenance. Palestinian refugees constituted more than a third of the kingdom's population of 1.5 million.In the Jordanian parliament, the West and East Banks received 30 seats each, having roughly equal population. The first elections were held April 11, 1950; although the West Bank had not yet been annexed, its residents were eligible to vote. The last Jordanian elections in which West Bank residents would vote were those of April 1967, but their parliamentary representatives would continue in office until 1988, when the West Bank seats were finally removed.
Agriculture remained the primary activity, the more so since the West Bank, despite its smaller area, contained half Jordan's agricultural land. In 1966, 43% of the labor force (55,000 workers) worked in agriculture, and 2,300 km² were under cultivation (numbers that have fallen considerably since.) In 1965, 15,000 workers were employed in industry, producing 7% of the GNP; this number fell after the war, and would not be surpassed until 1983*. The tourism industry also played an important role. 26 branches of 8 Arab banks were present. The Jordanian dinar became legal tender, and remains so there today.
There was a significant flow of population from the West Bank to East Bank , in particular to the capital, Amman.
Tensions continued between Jordan and Israel through the early fifties, with Palestinian guerrillas and Israeli commandos crossing the Green Line despite the Jordanian army's efforts to prevent both occurrences. The Qibya massacre, in which an Israeli commando unit killed 50 civilians within the West Bank in retaliation for Palestinian infiltrators' killing of three Israeli civilians, is one of the best known examples.
Abdullah I of Jordan, who had became Emir of Transjordan in 1921 and King in 1923, was assassinated in 1951 during a visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in East Jerusalem by a Palestinian gunman following rumors that he was discussing a peace treaty with Israel. The trial found that this assassination had been planned by Colonel Abdullah Tell, ex-military governor of Jerusalem, and Dr. Musa Abdullah Husseini. He was succeeded by his grandson King Hussein of Jordan once he came of age in 1953, after his father Talal's brief reign.
Six Day War
Following the outbreak of the Six Day War in June 1967, Israel warned King Hussein not to join Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser in opening a new front against Israel in the West Bank. Nevertheless, in accordance with its mutual defense treaty with Egypt, Jordan initiated artillery fire on Israeli positions in West Jerusalem. The Israel Defense Forces counter-attacked and heavy urban fighting ensued.The Israel Defense Force had long planned to capture East Jerusalem and completely pushed the Jordanian army out of the West Bank. The formerly Jordanian-controlled West Bank and its one million Palestinian civilians were placed under Israeli military rule. About 300,000 Palestinian refugees were forced to flee to Jordan.
See Political status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Rapprochement and peace
In 1988, Jordan ceded its claims to the West Bank to the Palestine Liberation Organization, as "the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people."*" target="_blank" >The 1993 Oslo Accords between the PLO and Israel "opened the road for Jordan to proceed on its own negotiating track with Israel."Washington Declaration*" target="_blank" >was initialled one day after the Oslo Accords were signed. "On July 25, 1994, King Hussein met with Israeli Prime Minister Rabin in the Rose Garden of the White House, where they signed the Washington Declaration, formally ending the 46-year state of war between Jordan and Israel."[http://www.kinghussein.gov.jo/his_peace2.html Finally, on October 26, 1994, Jordan signed the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace normalizing relations between the two countries and resolved territorial disputes between them.References
- Morris, B. (1999) Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-1999, Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0679421203
- Morris, B. (2003). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521009677
See also
External links
- pro-Israel:
- pro-Jordanian:
"Rule of the West Bank and East Jerusalem by Jordan"