Jordan has had bad experiences with allowing Palestinians into Jordan from the “Palestinian” enclaves before. What comes to mind is the Black September conflict (6 September 1970 – 23 July 1971) when Jordan, led by King Hussein, went up against the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), led by Yasser Arafat, along with other Palestinian militant groups. It was a war that drew Syria into the conflict against Jordan. The fighting really didn’t end until July 1971.
The PLO had set up shop in Jordan, with weapons in hand, after the Six Day War in 1967 after Jordan lost control of the West Bank to Israel– note that Jordan did not grant the Arabs of the West Bank autonomy. (Gaza was under Egyptian control until 1967.) (Palestinian militants attacking Israel based in the West Bank and Gaza were known as the Fedayeen.)
Thomas R. Koeniges – LOOK Magazine, May 13, 1969. p.27
Long story short, the PLO set up areas of control in Jordan with their military units, as though it was their country; they ended up really pushing their luck when they called for the overthrow of King Hussein, thereby sparking the war known as Black September.
To add to this, after the PLO lost the war in Jordan, many of those forces went to Lebanon– which was already also facing problems with Palestinian militants and refugees acting like they owned the place.
Basically, it was Palestinian militants, including the PLO, in camps in Lebanon who sparked the 15-year Lebanon Civil War (1975 to 1990).
With all that history, it’s understandable why King Abdullah of Jordan is reluctant to take in Gazans, especially from a generation that has been thoroughly brainwashed by the Islamofascist Hamas movement. Hamas and Islamist extremists are a threat to Jordan and the King.
Side note: it was under the British mandate post-WWI that Palestine as an area of governance, i.e. a province, was divided to create Transjordan and the Palestine province. Palestine included/includes the area of Jordan today. The first King of Transjordan (later Jordan), Abdullah I, a Hashemite, a Saudi Arabian, was installed by the British in 1921. Technically speaking, Jordanians are “Palestinians.”
Note that the Arabs of British mandate Palestine, and after 1948, were simply known as “Arabs” right into the 1960s, when there was a nationalist Palestinian identity created, re the PLO and leftists.
Trump’s position on Gaza at the moment might have something to do with his advisors referring to some of these historical facts and factors.
What will come out of these meetings between Trump and Abdullah may be unexpected.
Washington (AFP) – Jordan’s King Abdullah II faces a tense meeting with Donald Trump at the White House Tuesday as he leads opposition from Arab nations to the US president’s controversial Gaza takeover plan. See: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250211-jordan-king-set-for-tense-trump-talks-over-gaza
#trump #whitehouse #kingabudullah #jordan #israel #peace #gaza #hamas #security #middleeast #middleasthistory #palestinians #conflict #israelhamaswar #terrorism #terrorists #islamists #Islamism #militants #blackseptember
–RdM
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Latest: Added 12 Feb 25:
This is no surprise:
BBC News– Jordan’s King rejects Trump proposal to displace Palestinians from Gaza
King Abdullah of Jordan has rejected Donald Trump’s plan to resettle Palestinians in the kingdom.
Following a meeting with Trump at the White House on Tuesday, Abdullah wrote on X that Jordan remained “steadfast” against “the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This is the unified Arab position.”
It was the first meeting between the pair since Trump announced his proposal to take over Gaza and move its population of two million Palestinians to other countries in the region, including Jordan.
See: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly9m7kv7lro
The video below is the diplomatic polite words and faces for the press:
As you allude to, the “two-state” solution has existed all along- for all practical purposes, Jordan is Palestine. It’s just always been ruled, as you also note, by a Saudi dynasty. That being said, there seems to be little motivation for the Hashemite Kingdom to welcome Gazans; far from it. Egypt makes more sense all around. The Israelis had built resorts in Sinai that they demolished ahead of the turnover. Perhaps something like that could be rebuilt there?
Gaza could have been like a Singapore. But no, instead Islamism, hate, Jihad, religioidiology, corruption, and love of war dominated the Gaza enclave.
Very well said Royce. King Hussein gave every chance to Arafat to not be a Terrorist, and not be a damaging Revolutionary against the Jordanian Kingdom. Everywhere Arafat and the Palestinians went, they turned that area into an Enclave of Despair.
It’s no wonder, that no Muslim Country wants them.
By the way, after the PLO got kicked out of Lebanon during the 1982 Lebanon War. Arafat and his top leadership set up a base in Tunis, Tunisia, while many of the PLOs fighters were sent to various Arab countries. Even with Arafat far away in Tunisia, he still managed to plan terrorist attacks on Israel, including an elaborate plan for an amphibious terrorist raid on Israel in 1985. In April of that year, Israel managed to stop the raid when the ship carrying the PLO terrorists was sunk by Israeli naval boats. In retaliation, the Israelis launched ‘Operation Wooden Leg’, a long range air raid on the PLO facilities in Tunisia. There were 47–71 killed, 65–100 wounded, including some Tunisians.
They seem to bring trouble with them.
Yes. I remember that, and I believe that the IDF had Arafat cornered, and was forced to back-off by Reagan.