Jordan THE RABAT SUMMIT CONFERENCE AND AFTER
The Timna arches in the Wadi al Jayb, southern Jordan
The Rabat Summit conference in October 1974 brought together
the leaders of twenty Arab states, including Hussein, and
representatives of the PLO. PLO leaders threatened a walkout if
their demands for unconditional recognition were not met. The PLO
required a statement from the conference that any Palestinian
territory liberated by Arab forces would be turned over to the
"Palestinian people" as represented by their organization. Jordan
protested, pointing out that recognition on these terms would give
the PLO sovereignty over half of the population in the East Bank
and that in fact the annexation of the West Bank had been approved
by popular vote.
A compromise solution was adopted that nonetheless favored PLO
interests. The conference formally acknowledged the right of the
Palestinian people to a separate homeland, but without specifying
that its territory was restricted to the West Bank. Most important,
the PLO was for the first time officially recognized by all the
Arab states as the "sole legitimate representative of the
Palestinian people." The Arab heads of state also called for close
cooperation between the front-line states and the PLO but
prohibited interference by other Arab states in Palestinian
affairs.
The Rabat Summit declaration conferred a mantle of legitimacy
on the PLO that was previously absent. It gave official Arab
recognition to PLO territorial claims to the West Bank and
unambiguously put the fate of the Palestinian people solely in the
hands of the PLO. Hussein opposed the declaration, although he
eventually signed it under intense Arab pressure and after the Arab
oil-producing states promised to provide Jordan with an annual
subsidy of $US300 million. Despite his acquiescence to the Rabat
declaration and subsequent statements in support of the PLO,
Hussein persisted in viewing the declaration as an ambiguous
document that was open to differing interpretations. The PLO, along
with the rest of the Arab world, viewed Hussein's consent at Rabat
as a renunciation of Jordanian claims to the West Bank. Hussein
nonetheless continued to have aspirations concerning Jordanian
control of the occupied territories. The wide gulf separating the
two views was the major source of tension between the PLO and
Jordan throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Following the Rabat Summit, the PLO scored an impressive
political victory in the international arena. In late November
1974, the UN recognized PLO representation of the Palestinian
people, and PLO Chairman Yasir Arafat addressed the General
Assembly in Arabic, his pistol at his side. In addition, in a joint
communiqué issued the same month, President Gerald R. Ford of the
United States and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev acknowledged the "legitimate
interests" of the Palestinians in accordance with the UN
resolutions. Nonetheless, a UN draft resolution in 1976 proposing
to reaffirm the right of the Palestinians to self-determination--
and including the right to establish an independent state--was
vetoed in the Security Council by the United States, which called
instead for a "reasonable and acceptable definition of Palestinian
interests."
After the Rabat Summit, Hussein stressed the need for Jordanian
political self-sufficiency. He told his subjects, "a new reality
exists and Jordan must adjust to it. The West Bank is no longer
Jordanian." But having surrendered title to half his kingdom at the
behest of the Arab states, Hussein confessed concern that the East
Bank might become a "substitute Palestine," swallowed up as the
balance of political power there shifted to its Palestinian
majority.
The tone of Hussein's approach to the Palestinians in the East
Bank changed markedly following the Rabat Summit. He advised that
the resident Palestinians--estimated at 900,000 or more--must
choose between Jordanian citizenship or Palestinian identity. No
attempt would be made to oust those who chose the latter, he said,
and they would be permitted to remain in Jordan as "guests." He
also insisted that any Palestinian choosing to keep his Jordanian
citizenship must be allowed to do so without endangering his rights
in the West Bank; he further promised that any Palestinian living
in the East Bank who chose to identify his interests with those of
the "Palestinian people" could do so without jeopardizing his
rights as a Jordanian citizen.
In response to the new political situation following the Rabat
Summit, Hussein reorganized Jordan's political and administrative
institutions. On November 9, he amended the Constitution to give
the king authority to dissolve the House of Representatives (also
called the Chamber of Deputies--see
Jordan - The Legislature
, ch. 4) and to
delay elections as he saw fit. Using this constitutional
prerogative, Hussein dissolved the lower house of the National
Assembly--the elected House of Representatives--when it had
completed its work on November 23. The House of Representatives,
half of whose sixty members represented West Bank constituencies,
could no longer function without undermining the newly recognized
representative status of the PLO. The Constitution was amended to
provide for the indefinite postponement of elections for a new
House of Representatives so as to avoid elections on the East Bank
alone, which if held would have symbolized the final separation of
the West Bank from Jordan. In addition to dissolving the House of
Representatives, Hussein directed Prime Minister Zaid ar Rifai to
form a new government that did not include Palestinians from the
West Bank. No move was made, however, to relieve Palestinians in
the Jordanian army, where they composed one-third of the officer
corps, albeit mostly in noncombatant functions
(see Jordan - Personnel: Composition, Recruitment, and Training
, ch. 5). The government also
continued to pay the salaries of 6,000 civil servants and teachers
in the West Bank, which amounted to about US$40 million a year.
As a result of Hussein's partial reversal from the commitments
made at Rabat, Jordanian-PLO relations deteriorated throughout much
of 1975. At the year's end, however, the Palestine National
Council, meeting in Damascus, backed an effort to reconcile its
differences with Hussein. The broadcast of antiregime propaganda
was temporarily suspended and, although PLA units remained
stationed in Jordan in military camps, the PLO accepted
restrictions on its political and military presence there. At the
Arab summit conference held at Cairo in January 1976, Jordan and
the PLO once again were embroiled in a dispute over Jordan's role
in negotiating an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank. Jordan
declared that it had no responsibility for negotiating such a
withdrawal. In response, the PLO resumed its hostile propaganda
shortly after the meeting.
In February 1976, Hussein summoned an extraordinary session of
the National Assembly--attended by about half of the
representatives elected from the West Bank--to enact legislation
enabling the king to postpone indefinitely the general elections
scheduled for later in the month. The king's spokespersons
explained that the action was necessary because of "compelling
circumstances" that prevailed in the country. That same month,
Hussein abolished the Jordanian National Union.
In July Zaid ar Rifai, who had led the government since 1973,
stepped down as prime minister. Hussein replaced him with Mudar
Badran, chief of the royal court. The Badran government set up the
Bureau of Occupied Homeland Affairs, headed by former members of
parliament from West Bank constituencies, ostensibly to coordinate
and advise on relations with Palestinians in Israeli-occupied
territory. The government also conducted discussions on the renewed
possibility of some form of federation between the West Bank and
the East Bank. The PLO charged that the newly created Bureau of
Occupied Homeland Affairs had been formed to channel support to
pro-Jordanian candidates in municipal elections to be held in the
West Bank in April 1977. Badran denied these allegations and
reaffirmed Jordan's commitment to the concept that the Palestinians
themselves must decide the future of the West Bank. PLO-backed
candidates won an overwhelming victory in the April elections.
Data as of December 1989
|