Jordan is if at all Palestine.

Which is Palestinian
and which is Jordanian?

On the same day Dutch politician, Geert Wilders, delivered a speech in Tel Aviv where he declared that Jordan is indeed the state of the Palestinians, the Argentinean government also made a declaration, it said it recognized a Palestinian state in pre-1967 borders of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Both statements caused a stir in many places around the world.

PVV Dutch MP, Geert Wilders:
“Jordan is Palestine and Palestine is Jordan.”

In light of the far reaching ramifications of both statements, they should be then scrutinized for their veracity and historical factuality. First of all, is Jordan a Palestinian state? When looking at the map of the British mandate for what was known then as “Palestine”, it becomes quite clear what area was originally earmarked for the Jewish homeland.

At the end of the First World War, the division of responsibilities for the administering of the Middle East areas fell to the various Western powers victorious over the Ottoman Turks, as mandates, under the auspices of the League of Nations, it was during that time that the famous Balfour Declaration was made:

November 2nd, 1917

Dear Lord Rothschild,

I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.

“His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.

Yours sincerely,

Arthur James Balfour

The Balfour Declaration was accepted by the British Mandate in 1917, which then became subject to a White Paper that many believe reneged on it’s earlier promise, that being a commitment to allowing Jews a homeland. But the paper did insist however that:

“the Jewish community should know that it is in Palestine as of right and not on the sufferance. That is the reason why it is necessary that the existence of a Jewish National Home in Palestine should be internationally guaranteed, and that it should be formally recognized to rest upon ancient historic connection.”

Palestine Facts states that: “The area of the Mandate was originally 118,000 square kilometers (about 45,000 square miles). In 1921, Britain took the 91,000 square kilometers of the Palestine Mandate east of the Jordan River, and created Trans-Jordan (later the Arab country of Jordan) as a new Arabprotectorate. Jews were barred by law from living or owning property east of the Jordan river, even though that land was over three-fourths of the original Mandate.”

A Jordanian State stamp dating from 1964, bearing the likeness of King Hussein and pictures Mandated Palestine as an undivided territory

The Arab official line before a “two state solution” became stated policy of Israel and the West, was that the people in Trans-Jordan cum Jordan were indivisible from those Arabs inside Israel proper, Judea and Samaria. In fact there are statements by leading Arabs buttressing the notion that indeed: Jordan is Palestine and Palestine is Jordan.

This is the royal decree and sentiments of two of the kings of Jordan.

“Palestine and Jordan are one…” said King Abdullah in 1948.

“The truth is that Jordan is Palestine and Palestine is Jordan,” said King Hussein of Jordan, in 1981.

“Palestine is Jordan and Jordan is Palestine; there is only one land, with one history and one and the same fate,” Prince Hassan of the Jordanian National Assembly was quoted as saying on February 2, 1970.

Abdul Hamid Sharif, Prime Minister of Jordan declared, in 1980, “The Palestinians and Jordanians do not belong to different nationalities. They hold the same Jordanian passports, are Arabs and have the same Jordanian culture.”

What are we to conclude from this other than the historical perspective at the time, that being, they (the Arabs) saw themselves as being part of Palestine/Palestinian. Around 70%of the Jordanian population today, still see themselves as Palestinians. Even Yasser Arafat and his PLO thugs looked to Jordan as being a part of their homeland.

Abu Toameh:

When the PLO tried to establish a state-within-a-state in the kingdom in the late 60′s and early 70′s, Jordan’s King Hussein ordered the army to launch a massive assault on the refugee camps in the kingdom, massacring thousands of Palestinians in what has since become to be known as Black September.

The Palestinians who were expelled from Jordan to Lebanon later played a major role in the Lebanese civil war. Over 100,000 people are believed to have been killed in that war, which lasted for more than a decade.

Lets face facts, the three state solution has become an intractable mess, there is no room for budging on the Israeli side, every square centimeter given to these Arabs as a permanent part of a second Palestinian state, spells trouble for the Jewish state as it’s used as a launching pad for further aggression against it.

The Palestinians (which used to mean Jews in Palestine before Israel became a state) are not able to form a state for themselves, because they refuse to accept the responsibility for actually running it. They have proven themselves to be more comfortable in accepting massive amounts of foreign aid, while they continually try to chip away at Israeli legitimacy on the world stage.

Time to end the pretending that these Arabs are really serious about wanting a state of their own, and accept the fact that it’s the massive amounts of foreign aid that really interests them most, as well as the hope of one day getting rid of the highly successful 

The world has been surprised recently by Jordan's King Hussein severing his and his country's involvement with the Palestinian Arabs of Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank") and by thus exacerbating the political vacuum in the area. In the "washing his hands" of the problems of this area and its inhabitants, the king made the statement, "Jordan is not Palestine!"

What are the facts?

What does King Hussein mean by this statement? In order to understand King Hussein's statement, a review of Jordan's history is in order. It is a short one. The country is an artificial creation of the British. Before World War I, the area now known as the "Middle East" was part of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire. The French and British defeated the Turks, drove them out of the area, and split it between themselves. The French took what are now Syria and Lebanon as their "sphere of influence;" the British took Iraq, Palestine, Egypt and the Arabian peninsula. Two tribal Arabian chieftains were allied with Britain against the Turks and needed to be rewarded: Ibn Saud of the Saudi tribes, and Abdullah and Feisal of the Hashemites. The Saudis got the Arabian peninsula and made it into the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Hashemites had to be transplanted for their reward. Feisal was given the throne of Iraq -- an established though disarrayed country. But nothing was left for his cousin Abdullah who had also been promised a kingdom. What to do?

In 1917, Britain had issued the Balfour Declaration, a statement expressing Britain's promise for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." In 1922, the League of Nations granted Britain the mandate over Palestine, specifically including the requirements of the Balfour Declaration for the establishment of a Jewish homeland. Since Biblical times, under the Ottomans and under the British mandate, the country now called "Palestine" always included the area now occupied by Israel (including the "West Bank"), Gaza and Jordan. In order to satisfy the branch of the Hashemites that was left without a kingdom, the British drew a few lines on the map and granted the entire area east of the Jordan River -- close to 80% of mandated Palestine -- as a kingdom to Abdullah. The Jewish homeland, promised in the Balfour Declaration by the same British, was reduced to a mere one-fifth of its original size. Transjordan (as the new country was called), an artificial state with an alien ruling dynasty, attained its independence from Britain in 1946.

In 1947, the British having relinquished the Palestine mandate, the U.N. proposed a plan under which the just over 20% remnant of Palestine was to be further divided between the Arabs living in the area and the Jews. Such was the desire of the Jews to get their homeland, and so great the need to gather what was left of European Jewry after the Holocaust, that they accepted this further partition. The Arabs flatly refused. When Israel declared its independence in 1948, five Arab armies invaded it on the very day of its birth. Transjordan's army, led by British officers, was among them. The Israelis defeated all five armies. Egypt managed to hang on to Gaza, and Transjordan to the "West Bank" and the eastern sector of Jerusalem. Transjordan promptly renamed itself Jordan, proceeded to annex the area and to keep it an integral part of its kingdom. All inhabitants became Jordanian subjects.

Hussein's fatal mistake. In 1967, Hussein made the fatal mistake of his kingly career by allowing himself to be seduced into joining the Six Day War. All Arab armies were devastated. Israel regained the "West Bank." Pending final disposition of the area, Israel has administered it ever since. The inhabitants retained Jordanian citizenship. Israel allowed Jordan to stay in control of the judicial and religious systems, of the schools, and of the local administrative networks.

The Jordanians, of course, are the real Palestinian Arabs. Over 70% of the 2.8 million population of the kingdom are Palestinian Arabs. The Arabs of Jordan are exactly the same people as the Arabs living in the "West Bank" -- as alike as Americans from Iowa and from Wisconsin. There is no difference between them in language, ethnicity or social customs. Before the Six Day war, the concept of a second Palestinian state located in the "West Bank" had never occurred to anybody. Because the Palestinians, whose national identity is acknowledged by the Israelis, do have a country. It's Jordan. Over 2 million Palestinians live in Jordan, and only 800,000 in the territories administered by Israel. Do they need another country? Of course not! The Hungarians living in Rumania don't have another country; neither do the Turks living in Bulgaria, nor do the Swedes living in Finland. Then why should the Jordanians/Palestinians living in the territories administered by Israel have another country, since they have a country of their own right next door? It makes no difference what King Hussein says. Jordan is and always has been Palestine. His saying "it ain't so" does not change that at all.  

One wonders why King Hussein would abdicate his "rights" to the area west of the Jordan River, and why he is apparently cutting its 800,000 inhabitants loose and leaving the field open to Israel and the PLO. The King is a clever man and a survivor. He has come to realize that he already has 2 million Palestinians in Jordan. They owe him little loyalty and are in almost constant rebellion. Only recently, thousands of them have been arrested in riots and public disorders and scores have been killed. (In contrast to what happens in Israel, media are not allowed to cover these events.) It's clear now to King Hussein that if 800,000 Arab Palestinians from the "West Bank" were to form an independent PLO state, they would seek union with their brethren in Jordan. But that union would not be under King Hussein — it would be under the PLO. And that would be the end of King Hussein and of the Hashemite dynasty. Whatever statement King Hussein wishes to make: It is clear — historically, socially, and by common sense that — Jordan is palestine and Palestine is Jordan.