Jordan says will not be 'substitute homeland' for Palestinians

Ha'aertz/AP ^ | 1-5-04

[SJackson]

AMMAN, Jordan - Jordan on Monday rejected calls by some hard-line Israeli politicians to make the kingdom a homeland for West Bank Palestinians.

Prime Minister Faisal al-Fayez told two visiting Members of Knesset that Jordan "rejects any Israeli schemes which seek to expel Palestinians (from the West Bank) or to return to statements that Jordan is a substitute homeland (for Palestinians)," the official Petra news agency said.

"Jordan's position is clear and there's no room for bargaining," al-Fayez reportedly told Mohammed Barakeh and Issam Makhoul of Hadash, also known as the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality.

Hard-line Israeli politicians, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, have long championed the idea that Jordan could be a Palestinian state because it clears the way for proposing Israeli annexation of the West Bank.

While Sharon abandoned the idea upon his election as prime minister, lawmakers from small right-wing parties continue to pursue it. But these groups are a small minority in the Israeli political pantheon.

Israel must "recognize the legitimate and national rights of the Palestinian people, and in the forefront its right to establish a Palestinian state in pre-1967 borders and with Jerusalem as its capital," al-Fayez said.

Israeli Embassy spokesman Amir Weissbrod told The Associated Press that Israeli policy toward Jordan remained unchanged. "We have no change in Israeli policy, we're committed to the peace treaty with Jordan and we view our relations with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan as strategic," he said.

Roughly half of Jordan's 5.1 million population is made up of Palestinians and their descendants who fled or were driven out of their homes in the 1948 and 1967 Arab-Israeli wars. The government fears that expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank would aggravate the demographic balance in Jordan.

Government officials in Jordan say the 1994 Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty bears witness to Israel's recognition of the state of Jordan and calls by the Israeli hard-liners are a breach of the accord.

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

Can't blame them.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

It already is the Palestinian homeland, but if anybody admitted it they would have to question the need for a Palestinian state in Israel.

[Bikers4Bush]

God forbid they take them back.

Had Jordan dealt effectively with the "palestinians" when they were causing trouble in Jordan the whole world would be better off.

[Puppage]

[Bikers4Bush]

Exactly.

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[Weimdog]

THE LATE KING HUSSEIN OF JORDAN, 1981:

"The truth is that Jordan is Palestine and Palestine is Jordan."

http://www.moledet.org/jordanpalestine.html

[malakhi]

According to the Palestinian Authority web site:

After 1948 and the first Arab-Israeli war, these territories were administered by two Arab states: the Gaza Strip by Egypt, the west bank of the Jordan river, today the West Bank, by the Hashemite Kingdom. Whereas Cairo only limited itself to administering Gaza, Amman integrated the West bank into the Kingdom of Jordan. Consequently, Palestinians of the west Bank received Jordanian passports and were recognized as Jordanian citizens.

[Catspaw]

And that was after the Palestinians tried to knock off King Hussein's father, was it not? Or did the attempted coup happen before that?

[marron]

Historic Palestine was divided into two parts. Jewish Palestine was renamed "Israel", and Arab Palestine was renamed "Jordan". So that Jordan is Arab Palestine is not even in question.

That does not settle the issue of how the West Bank is to be administered, but it does mean that the only two countries with a stake in it are Israel and Jordan. The Arabs in the territory will be Israeli citizens, or Jordanian citizens. The administration will be Israeli, or Jordanian, or some kind of joint administration between the two.

An independent enclave attached to neither is not workable, is guaranteed to be lawless, and has no economic viability whatever. There will never be an independent West Bank, the sooner we can drop the idea the sooner we can move on to something that can work.

If Jordan is willing to help solve the problem, it is probably solvable. If they are not, then Israel will have to pick a solution itself and implement it unilaterally.

[Buell_X1-1200]

See it's simple, those in Jordan don't want to be overrun by hundreds-of-thousands of unemployed, rock-throwing cockroaches.

[Weimdog]

His father was gunned down in the 50's.

A short history of Hussein here -

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/meast/9902/07/king.hussein.obit/

[Dan from Michigan]

I can't blame Jordan for this. The Palis are nuts. Who wants them?

[Bikers4Bush]

Oh I'm sure that's the case, I just don't see why they shouldn't be forced to deal with a problem they created.

[Bikers4Bush]

That's the problem, the "palis" are actually Jordanians who were ejected for trying to overthrow the King of Jordan.

[rintense]

Game. Set. Match.

[Sabertooth]

Can't blame them.

Sure we can.

The purpose of Jordan's existence is to be a "palestinian" homeland, according to the League of Nations mandate of 1922. That's why the Jews of proto-Israel gave up 78% of the Transjordan to the Arabs, the first time they traded land for peace in the 20th Century.

We have problems now because the Brits installed the Hashemites in Jordan after the Wahabbi House of Saud drove them from Arabia, and the Hashemites promptly reneged on the Arabs for whom Jordan was intended.

Jordan is Palestine. Let Israel be Israel.

[Rutles4Ever]

Does this mean we can consider the Middle East conflict resolved? </sarcasm>

[malakhi]

My previous solution was to move the Palestinians to France, but your post suggests a variation. Give Jordan back to the Palestinians, move the Hashemites back to Arabia, and move the House of Saud to France.