On September 23, Jordan’s King Abdullah addressed the United Nations General Assembly, using much of his platform to criticize Israel over what he termed “one of the world’s longest running occupations” in violation of international law. The Jordanian monarch asserted the international community had ignored the plight of Palestinians for decades.
The speech drew scrutiny pointing to the Hashemite kingdom’s own complex and often turbulent historical relationship with the Palestinian population. Jordan’s past actions—including the 1950 annexation of the West Bank, the 1988 administrative disengagement that stripped roughly one million residents of their nationality, and the deadly 1970–71 military confrontation known as Black September—present a historical backdrop that complicates unqualified denunciations of other regional actors.
Hashemite Annexation and International Rejection
During the 1948–49 war, the Arab Legion of Jordan took control of the West Bank. On April 24, 1950, the Jordanian parliament formally approved the annexation of the territory, declaring “complete unity between the two banks of the Jordan” under King Abdullah I, the great-grandfather of the current monarch. Residents of the West Bank became Jordanian citizens.
The Arab League rejected the annexation, as did the international community. Only Great Britain and, it has been suggested, Pakistan recognized the move. The UN determined that Jordan’s incorporation of the land lacked legal standing internationally, pointing out that global law refuses to view military conquest as a legitimate method for establishing sovereignty over territory.
The 1988 Disengagement and Statelessness
Decades later, King Hussein reversed the administrative and legal ties binding Jordan to the territory. On July 31, 1988, the king announced that Jordan was ending its legal and administrative relationship with the West Bank with immediate effect.
The sudden decree stripped some one million Arabs resident in the West Bank of their Jordanian citizenship. Human Rights Watch describes them as becoming stateless Palestinians under Israeli occupation, receiving temporary Jordanian travel documents instead of passports conferring citizenship.
The loss of nationality carried serious legal consequences. Former citizens lost the right to reside in Jordan, vote, or stand for office. State employment was closed to them, and they encountered significant hurdles when attempting to obtain jobs, schooling, medical care, and other essential provisions. Human rights law prohibits the arbitrary deprivation of nationality, and Article 15(2) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality.”
Black September and the 1970–71 Civil Conflict
In his UN address, King Abdullah called on world opinion to denounce Israel for Palestinian deaths. Critics have pointed out that his father, King Hussein, faced accusations of heavy-handed violence during the 1970–71 conflict with Palestinian armed groups.
Following the 1967 Six-Day War, it was from Jordan that Palestinian fighters began mounting guerrilla operations against Israel. By 1969, Yasser Arafat was leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and armed factions established bases and checkpoints inside Jordanian cities and refugee camps, frequently defying state authorities.
The confrontation escalated in September 1970 when the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijacked multiple international airliners. Three planes were taken to Dawson’s Field near Zarqa, where they were blown up before international media cameras. Declaring martial law on September 16, 1970, King Hussein ordered the Jordanian Army to dislodge Palestinian militias from Amman, Zarqa, and Irbid.
The resulting conflict involved artillery, tanks, and infantry. Although a ceasefire was hammered out in Cairo on September 27, 1970, it proved ineffective. In early 1971, the Jordanian military renewed its campaign, systematically dismantling remaining PLO strongholds until organized resistance was effectively destroyed in July 1971.
Arafat and senior PLO figures fled across the Jordanian-Syrian border into Lebanon, accompanied by thousands of fighters. Despite the former PLO leader’s once alleging that King Hussein was responsible for the deaths of 25,000 Palestinians—an assertion widely viewed as an extreme exaggeration meant for propaganda purposes—independent estimates generally place the death toll among Palestinians in the low thousands, comprising both fighters and non-combatants alongside losses suffered by the Jordanian armed forces. The bitterness generated by the campaign led to the assassination of Jordanian Prime Minister Wasfi al-Tal in 1971 by the Black September Organization.
Although these historical events do not resolve the ethical and legal debates surrounding the present-day crisis, they do cast doubt on Abdullah’s stance of absolute moral condemnation toward Israel.
