By David Singer ——Bio and Archives--August 2, 2021
World News | CFP Comments | Reader Friendly | Subscribe | Email Us
Zakaria: Dore Gold, an influential adviser to Prime Minister Netanyahu, recently said, Jordan needs to start thinking of itself as the Palestinian state. In other words, there is a two-state solution, the Palestinian state is Jordan, I think the implication would be, of course, you have 60-70 percent Palestinians, you could absorb the Palestinians in the West Bank. This has been touted before, but here you have a fairly influential Israeli saying it. What is your reaction? King: Well, again, that type of rhetoric is nothing new, and basically, those people have agendas that they want to do at the expense of others. Jordan is Jordan. We have a mixed society from different ethnic and religious backgrounds. I would maybe contest the percentage in the figures that you have mentioned, but it is our country. The Palestinians do not want to be in Jordan; they want their lands, they want their football team, they want their flag to fly above their houses."King Abdullah ignored Jordan's chequered origins in asserting:
The following historic, geographic and demographic realities contradict King Abdullah's remarks:
- "Jordan is Jordan",
- "it is our country" and
- "the Palestinians do not want to be in Jordan"
- Jordan--then called Transjordan--comprised 78% of the territory of former Palestine designated in the 1920-1948 Mandate for Palestine (British Mandate).
- Transjordan only became an independent state in 1946
- Abdullah's great-grandfather and Transjordan's first ruler--King Abdullah I--told a meeting of the Arab League in Cairo on April 12, 1948:
"Palestine and Transjordan are one, for Palestine is the coastline and Transjordan the hinterland of the same country"- Israel achieved its independence in May 1948 in 17% of the territory comprised in the British Mandate.
- Transjordan was unified with Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem into one territorial entity and renamed Jordan in 1950 after Transjordan had conquered those areas in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War--which lasted until their loss to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.
- Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem were designated "the West Bank of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan" in the founding 1964 Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Charter--whilst regional sovereignty was not claimed by the PLO.
- The 1964 PLO Charter asserted that "Palestine with its boundaries at the time of the British Mandate is a regional indivisible unit."
- The revised 1968 PLO Charter confirmed that "Palestine, with the boundaries it had during the British Mandate, is an indivisible territorial unit".
- Arab residents of Judea and Samaria were Jordanian citizens between 1950 and 1988
- Abdullah's uncle--Prince Hassan--told the Jordanian National Assembly on February 2, 1970:
Palestine is Jordan and Jordan is Palestine, there is one people and one land, with one history and one and the same fate"- The PLO unsuccessfully tried to seize power in Jordan in 1970
- Prime PLO political strategist--Abu Iyad--declared in Near East Report on January 8, 1990:
"All those who tried in the past and are still trying to create divisions between the Jordanian and Palestinian people have failed. We indeed constitute one people"
Support Canada Free Press
View Comments
David Singer is an Australian Lawyer, a Foundation Member of the International Analyst Network and Convenor of Jordan is Palestine International—an organization calling for sovereignty of the West Bank and Gaza to be allocated between Israel and Jordan as the two successor States to the Mandate for Palestine. Previous articles written by him can be found at: jordanispalestine.blogspot.com