How interesting it is that JORDAN, not ISRAEL occupied the West Bank since the establishment of the Jewish State in 1948:
How further intersting that JORDAN didnt want it back when they signed their peace treaty with Israel:
How even further, that Jordan didnt want the PLO to have jurisdiction over so called holy places in Jeruslaem?
On 26 October 1994 Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty at the Arava border crossing, north of Aqaba. By doing so, Jordan was the second Arab country to conclude formal peace with Israel (after Egypt in 1979).
This treaty is the result of several developments:
The abandonment on 31 July 1988, during the Palestinian Intifada, of king Hussein's claim to rule the West Bank;
The Conference for Peace in the Middle East which started on 30 October 1991 in Madrid and the bilateral peace negotiations between Jordan and Israel in the framework of this Conference;
The signing of the Declaration of Principles (DOP) on 13 September 1994 between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO). The DOP was negotiated outside the Madrid framework and gave the opportunity to Jordan to also negotiate alone with Israel (without considering an Arab consensus as a necessity).
On September 14, 1994, one day after the formal signing of the DOP in Washington, Jordan and Israel agreed on a Common Agenda which cleared the way for a peace treaty between them, which was signed on October 26.
Under this peace treaty, Jordan recovered its nominal sovereignty over all its territories occupied by Israel such as the Baqura Area and the Al-Ghamr Area, an area of 344 km² occupied by Israel between 1968 and 1970. But in fact the land remained in Israeli hands: the Israelis living in the mentioned areas obtained the right to use it for 25 years. Jordan also obtained the recognition by Israel of a "special historical role" for Jordan in Jerusalem. (King Hussein's 1998 decision to disengage legally and administratively from the West Bank in favour of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation did not include the Islamic Awqaf (properties) and the Holy Sites in Jerusalem).
Further articles in the treaty provided for the establishment of diplomatic relations, open borders, the recovery of water rights and economic cooperation. The delicate question of the Palestinian refugees of 1948 - the majority of Jordan's population are Palestinians - was postponed until the final status negotiations between Israel and the PLO. The question of the return of Palestinian "displaced persons" - Palestinians of the West Bank who fled to Jordan during the Six Day War of 1967 - was referred to a quadripartite commission (Israel, PLO, Jordan and Egypt). |
