Global InformationJordanian annexation of the West Bank information
West Bank الضفة الغربية Aḍ-Ḍiffah l-Ġarbiyyah | |||||||||
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| 1948–1967 | |||||||||
 Flag
 Coat of arms
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 Contemporary map, 1955 | |||||||||
| Status | Area annexed by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan | ||||||||
| Capital | Amman | ||||||||
| Common languages | Arabic | ||||||||
| Religion | Sunni Islam (majority) Christian (minority) | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• First Arab-Israeli War | 14 May 1948 | ||||||||
• Annexation | 24 April 1950 | ||||||||
• Six-Day War | 5–10 June 1967 | ||||||||
• Surrender of Jordanian claims | 31 July 1988 | ||||||||
| Currency | Jordanian dinar | ||||||||
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| Today part of | Israeli occupation of the West Bank, claimed by Palestine, widely recognized as Palestinian territory.[a] | ||||||||
The Jordanian administration of the West Bank officially began on April 24, 1950, and ended with the decision to sever ties on July 31, 1988. The period started during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, when Jordan occupied and subsequently annexed the portion of Mandatory Palestine that became known as the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The territory remained under Jordanian control until it was occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six Day War and eventually Jordan renounced its claim to the territory in 1988.[1][2][3]
After the withdrawal of British forces from Palestine at the end of 14 May 1948, Arab states entered the areas of Mandatory Palestine earmarked by the UN General Assembly Resolution 181 of 29 November 1947 for an independent Arab state, meant to be established alongside a Jewish state. These forces were under the command of King Abdullah I of Jordan. The Jordanian Arab Legion successfully took control of the Old City of Jerusalem and a significant portion of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea, including cities such as Jericho, Bethlehem, Hebron, Nablus, Ramallah, and others.[4] Following the end of hostilities, the area that remained under Jordanian control became known as the West Bank.[b]
During the December 1948 Jericho Conference, hundreds of Palestinian notables in the West Bank gathered, accepted Jordanian rule and recognized Abdullah as ruler. The West Bank was formally annexed on 24 April 1950, but the annexation was widely considered as illegal and void by most of the international community.[6] A month afterwards, the Arab League, having received assurances from Jordan, resolved to treat the annexed area as being held in trust until the Palestine question was resolved. Recognition of Jordan's declaration of annexation was granted by the United Kingdom, the United States, Iraq, and possibly Pakistan,[6][7][8][9][10] and no objections were raised when Jordan was admitted to the United Nations in 1955.[11]
When Jordan transferred its full citizenship rights to the residents of the West Bank, the annexation more than tripled the population of Jordan, going from 400,000 to 1,300,000.[4][12] The naturalized Palestinians enjoyed equal opportunities in all sectors of the state without discrimination, and they were given half of the seats of the Jordanian parliament.[13] After Jordan lost the West Bank to Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, the Palestinians there remained Jordanian citizens until Jordan renounced claims to and severed administrative ties with the territory in 1988.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
- ^ Eyal Benvenisti (2004). The International Law of Occupation. Princeton University Press. pp. 108–. ISBN 978-0-691-12130-7.
- ^ Raphael Israeli, Jerusalem divided: the armistice regime, 1947–1967, Volume 23 of Cass series – Israeli history, politics, and society, Psychology Press, 2002, p. 23.
- ^ "Under Jordanian occupation since the 1948 Palestine war," Chicago Tribune, 3 June 1954
- ^ a b Cavendish, Richard (4 April 2000). "Jordan Formally Annexes the West Bank". History Today. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
- ^ Ilan Pappe (26 July 1988). Britain and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1948-51. Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 77–. ISBN 978-1-349-19326-4.
- ^ a b Benveniśtî, Eyāl (2004). The international law of occupation. Princeton University Press. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-691-12130-7.
This purported annexation was, however, widely regarded as illegal and void, by the Arab League and others, and was recognized only by Britain, Iraq, and Pakistan.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:0was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
:1was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ George Washington University. Law School (2005). The George Washington international law review. George Washington University. p. 390. Retrieved 21 December 2010.
Jordan's illegal occupation and Annexation of the West Bank
- ^ It is often stated that Pakistan recognized it as well, but that is disputed; see S. R. Silverburg, Pakistan and the West Bank: A research note, Middle Eastern Studies, 19:2 (1983) 261–263.
- ^ Kattan, Victor (8 April 2019). "The False Premise Sustaining Israel's West Bank Claim – Part I". Opinio Juris. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
When Jordan was admitted to membership of the UN in 1955, no state challenged the legality of Jordan's union with the West Bank. This was in stark contrast to the debates on Israel's application for membership of the UN that was debated in the UN Security Council in 1948 and in the Ad Hoc Political Committee of the third session of the UN General Assembly in 1949.
- ^ Mishal, Shaul. "Chapter 4. Conflictual Pressures and Cooperative Interests: Observations on West Bank-Amman Political Relations, 1949–1967". Palestinian Society and Politics, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980, pp. 169-184. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400854479.169
- ^ Nils August Butenschon; Uri Davis; Manuel Sarkis Hassassian (2000). Citizenship and the State in the Middle East: Approaches and Applications. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-2829-3. Retrieved 18 October 2015.