I’ve read that what was meant to be Palestinian Arab “Palestine” is now controlled by Jordan as well as Israel. How come I never hear about Jordan being asked to give up it’s portion to begin the formation of a Palestinian state?
None.
The Hashemite Kingdom controlled the West Bank until the IDF booted them. Large numbers of Palestinians live in Jordan, however.
Palestine, historically, included not only the land on the Western side of the Jordan, but the Eastern side as well. In 1922 (I may be off on the year), the land on the Eastern side of the Jordan was portioned off and made into the country of Transjordan (later renamed Jordan). This land included the majority of the historic land of Palestine (most, if not all of it, was not among the land that the Jews wanted for their homeland).
Today, however, this area is no longer referred to as “Palestine.” So, in today’s parlance, Jordan controls none of Palestine. If you are referring to the historic Palestine, then it controls a majority of it. (They did, of course, control the West Bank of the Jordan river from 1948-1967.)
Zev Steinhardt
Historically the term was quite vague, and I do not believe it applied in large part to the Jordanian desert territories, but to the inhabited East Bank.
Regardless, the modern usage is West Bank and Ghaza.
The British Mandate of Palestine initially incorporated both what we call Israel/Palestine today and the largely unpopulated territories east of the Jordan river - the Transjordan. However the Transjordan was soon separated out and given ( kinda - it’s complicated ) to the a branch of the allied/vassal Hashemite dynasty of western Arabia to rule as a subject emirate in 1921. It’s populace to a significant extent derived from Bedouin that migrated in with the Hashemites and had little culturally in common with the settled Arab populace west of the Jordan river - the folks that would come to be called the Palestinians.
Fast forward to the British pullout and the first Arab-Israeli War in 1948. Jordan was the only really successful Arab combatant and gained the West Bank, a chunk of what was now referred to as Palestine. With it came a new majority populace of “Palestinians” - settled town and village-dwelling Arabs that lacked the traditional loyalty to the the Hashemite dynasty that the Bedouin had. Consequently they became something of second-class citizens, when they were allowed to become citizens at all. Fast forward again to 1967 - Jordan loses West Bank to Israel and becomes essentially the Transjordan again. However the demographic shift, even in those eastern territories, is now permanent. Jordan has a majority population of Palestinians to this day.
Now - There are two arguments relating to Jordan in this vein:
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The Transjordan already represented over 3/4 of the Mandate of Palestine, so transferring it Emir Abdullah satisfied any requirement to give the Arabs land. The Arab argument rejects this as silly - It was mostly empty desert and a vacume that was filled by an immigrant ruler and population and doesn’t in anyway relate to the bulk of the Arabs living in Palestine before the British took power.
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Jordan already has a Palestinian majority, so why can’t it be the Palestinian state? The counter-argument is that this ignores the historic ( now fading a bit ) status of Palestinians in Jordan as aliens.
At any rate the U.N. plan referred to what is now considered Israel, not the old mandate including Transjordan. Hence since 1967 Jordan hasn’t held any land that was considered under that partition.
- Tamerlane
Well as I deal with Jordan extensively, very extensively I can report East Banker and Bedouine have little love for the Palestinians in Jordan.
It also bears mentioning the West Bank was settled, and queerly enough much of the settlement was by Circassians ressettled by Ottoman authorities. They are generally now intermarried with the ‘original’ Jordanians but are a visible ethnic influence, closely allied with the Hashemite throne.
So the perpetuation of Palestinian identity is through those who were actually kicked out, the stories told to children of those kicked out, and those third parties using the conflict to their own ends? Roughly what percent of the total Palestinian population lives in which countries?
By the way, I meant East Bank, not West Bank above.