King Hussein and Mashour Haditha after battle of Karameh

A political program was proposed by King

Hussein of Jordan Hussein bin Talal (14 November 1935 – 7 February 1999) was King of Jordan from 1952 until Death and state funeral of King Hussein, his death in 1999. As a member of the Hashemites, Hashemite dynasty, the royal family of Jordan since 1921, Hu ...

during a speech to

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

on March 15, 1972 that aimed to establish a Jordanian-Palestinian federation, the "United Arab Kingdom" if Israel conceded the control of

East Jerusalem East Jerusalem (, ; , ) is the portion of Jerusalem that was Jordanian annexation of the West Bank, held by Jordan after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as opposed to West Jerusalem, which was held by Israel. Captured and occupied in 1967, th ...

to the Jordanian-Palestinian federation so that it would become the capital of its

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

federal district. Hussein's proposal was rejected by most parties involved soon after it was announced.

Overview

On 15 March 1972, King Hussein of Jordan revealed his plan for a "United Arab Kingdom", which would be a federation consisting of two federal districts: the

Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

and a Palestinian federal district in the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

region that was under Jordanian control between 1948 and 1967, with

being its capital. According to the proposal, the two districts of the federation would be autonomous except for military, foreign affairs and security, which would be run by a central government in

Amman Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant ...

. Nevertheless, King Hussein conditioned the establishment of the United Arab Kingdom in achieving a peace agreement between Israel and Jordan. Ultimately, King Hussein's proposal was ruled out after it had been rejected by Israel and the

PLO The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinian people in both the occupied Palestinian territories and the diaspora. ...

, and other Arab states had strongly opposed the plan.

Reactions

Palestinians

In the eyes of the

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinians, Palestinian people in both the occupied Pale ...

(PLO), the plan meant an end to the Palestinian struggle and a denial of their own objectives. Its strong opposition was expressed in a statement issued by the PLO's executive committee, which met immediately after the plan was announced: The

Palestinian National Council The Palestinian National Council (PNC; ) is the legislative body - in Arabic, the ''Majlis'' - of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The PNC is intended to serve as the parliament that represents all Palestinians inside and outside th ...

went further in calling for the overthrow of King Hussein: "

e must E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); plu ...

engage in a struggle to liberate Jordan from the subservient royalist regime which is a mask for the effective Zionist domination of the East Bank and acts as a hired guardian of the Zionist occupation of Palestine".

Israel

Israel's response was immediate and negative. On the same day that Hussein's announcement was broadcast, the spokesman of the Israeli prime minister,

Golda Meir Golda Meir (; 3 May 1898 – 8 December 1978) was the prime minister of Israel, serving from 1969 to 1974. She was Israel's first and only female head of government. Born into a Jewish family in Kyiv, Kiev, Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine) ...

, denied that Israel had any involvement with the plan and described it as "negating the cause of peace" and that it "creates obstacles on the road to its achievement." The Israeli Defense Minister,

Moshe Dayan Moshe Dayan (; May 20, 1915 – October 16, 1981) was an Israeli military leader and politician. As commander of the Jerusalem front in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Chief of General Staff (Israel), Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defe ...

, dismissed the announcement as "mere words, which do not open a pathway to any agreement or solution". The following day, Golda Meir made a statement to the Knesset where the plan was debated and a resolution passed. The Knesset resolution rejected the plan:

Arab states

The reaction from the Arab world to King Hussein's proposal was hostile. Most Arab states rejected the idea outright and stated that it had been planned in concert with the United States and Israel to undermine the interests of the Palestinians. They also saw the plan as an attempt by Hussein to sign a unilateral Jordanian peace agreement with Israel, separate from the other Arab states. Egypt, Syria and Libya were among the harshest critics, Egypt went to the extent of breaking off diplomatic relations with Jordan on April 6, 1972. The President of Iraq,

Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr Field Marshal Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr (1 July 1914 – 4 October 1982) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fourth president of Iraq, from 17 July 1968 to 15 July 1979. He was a leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party a ...

, condemned the plan and announced that "the masses of the Arab world are looking to all of us for unified action against the reactionary plan for surrender to the Zionist enemy". Al-Bakr proposed a Union of Arab Republics instead. Some Arab states, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, did not immediately come out against the proposal, but its rejection by the Arab world was eventually almost universal.

References

Sources

The Palestine Question, Henry Cattan
p. 305
A History of Modern Palestine, Ilan Pappé
p. 211

External links

King Hussein's federation plan (1972)
- the full original text of the proposal {{in lang, ar
King Hussein's federation plan (March 15 1972)
- English translation of the transcript.

* ttps://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SfdjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-uQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=996%2C6368123 The Sydney Morning Herald (March 17, 1972)- contemporary news article reporting the initial reaction to the plan. Modern history of Jordan Hussein of Jordan History of the Palestine Liberation Organization Jerusalem in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict Jordan in the Arab–Israeli conflict 1972 in Jordan 1972 in international relations March 1972 in Asia Politics of the Arab–Israeli conflict Federations it:Opzione giordana