During their White House meeting on Tuesday, Jordan’s King Abdullah politely avoided negative comment on US president Donald Trump’s plan to force 2.3 million Palestinians to leave Gaza and settle in Jordan and Egypt.
As an acceptable alternative the king spoke of the Egyptian plan to reconstruct devastated Gaza while its inhabitants remain in the strip. This plan will be finalised at an Arab summit in Riyadh on February 27th, the king said.
He made the point that Gaza’s recovery should consider “the best interests the United States, of the people in the region, especially my people of Jordan”.
Minister for foreign affairs Ayman Safadi said: “Our rejection of the displacement of Palestinians is firm and will not change. Jordan is for Jordanians and Palestine is for Palestinians.”
According to the London-based Middle East Eye website, influential Jordanian sources said Amman could declare war on Israel if it attempts to expel Palestinians into the kingdom, even though Jordan cannot match Israel’s military power.
On the regional front, Jordan has long faced existential peril from pressures to become the “Palestinian state”. The admission of more Palestinians could strengthen this proposition, which is refused by Arabs. Palestinian control of Jordan would dispose of the two-state solution based on Gaza, the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, which is rejected by Israel. During 1970, Jordan fended off a Palestinian takeover attempt and expelled Palestinian fighters to Lebanon.
On the domestic front, a fresh influx of Palestinians from Gaza could destabilise Jordan. It has a population of 11 million, divided equally between those of Palestinian origin and indigenous Jordanians, many of whom are tribespeople. The tribes are the mainstay of the state and monarchy and provide recruits for the army. Former deputy prime minister Jawad Anani told the BBC that settling Gazans would “disrupt our demographic structure”.
Jordan absorbed most of the 750,000 Palestinians who fled the Israeli-Arab war in 1948. It ruled the West Bank and East Jerusalem until 1967, when Israel occupied them and expelled another 250,000 Palestinians into Jordan. There are currently 2.39 million United Nations-registered Palestinian refugees in Jordan, 18 per cent of them in camps. Most have Jordanian citizenship.
[ Trump repeats Gaza takeover plan as he meets Jordan's King AbdullahOpens in new window ]
In addition to Palestinian refugees, the World Bank has reported that Jordan has received 1.3 million Syrian refugees, 675,000 of whom rely on UN aid.
Syrians form the largest group of 730,000 UN-registered refugees who include Iraqis, Yemenis and Somalis. The UN high commissioner for refugees said Jordan hosts the world’s second highest number of refugees per capita.
Jordan is a resource-poor country and the world’s second-most water-scarce country. Supplies barely suffice for the population. Unemployment in the country stands at 21.5 per cent, with youth unemployment at 46 per cent. Jordan’s economy has also been hit by a decline in tourism and the 2019-2021 Covid pandemic. Trump has so far denied he would cut $1.5 billion in US aid to Jordan if his Gaza plan is rejected. However, the European Union in January formed a strategic partnership with Jordan which will provide €3 billion between 2025-2027.
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