Wikipedia

Israel–Jordan peace treaty

TheIsrael–Jordan peace treaty(formally the "Treaty of Peace Between the State of Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan"),[Note 1]sometimes referred to as theWadi Araba Treaty,[1]isan agreementthat ended thestate of warthat had existed between the two countries since the1948 Arab–Israeli Warand establishedmutual diplomatic relations.In addition to establishing peace between the two countries, the treaty also settled land and water disputes, provided for broad cooperation in tourism and trade, and obligated both countries to prevent their territory being used as a staging ground for military strikes by a third country.

Israel–Jordan Peace Treaty
Treaty of Peace Between the State of Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
Bill Clinton watches Hussein of Jordan and Yitzhak Rabin signing papers
U.S. PresidentBill Clinton(center) watches Jordan's KingHussein(left) and Israeli Prime MinisterYitzhak Rabin(right) sign the Washington Declaration on the White House lawn
TypePeace treaty
Signed26 October 1994;30 years ago(1994-10-26)
LocationArabah,Israel
Signatories
DepositarySecretary-General of the United Nations
CitationsUNTS35325
LanguageEnglish

The signing ceremony took place at the southern border crossing ofArabahon 26 October 1994.Jordanwas the secondArabcountry, afterEgypt,to sign a peace accord withIsrael.[2]

History

In 1987 Israeli Foreign Affairs MinisterShimon Peresand King Hussein tried secretly to arrange a peace agreement in which Israel would concede the West Bank to Jordan. The two signed anagreementdefining a framework for a Middle Eastern peace conference. The proposal was not consummated due to Israeli Prime MinisterYitzhak Shamir's objection. The following yearJordanabandoned its claim to the West Bank in favor of a peaceful resolution between Israel and thePLO.[3][4]

Discussions began in 1994.Israeli Prime MinisterYitzhak Rabinand Foreign MinisterShimon Peresinformed King Hussein that after theOslo Accordswith the PLO, Jordan might be "left out of the big game". Hussein consulted withEgyptian PresidentHosni MubarakandSyrian PresidentHafez al-Assad.Mubarak encouraged him, but Assad told him only to "talk" and not sign any accord.U.S.PresidentBill Clintonpressured Hussein to start peace negotiations and to sign a peace treaty with Israel and promised him that Jordan's debts would be forgiven. The efforts succeeded and Jordan signed a nonbelligerency agreement with Israel. Rabin, Hussein and Clinton signed the Washington Declaration inWashington, DC,on 25 July 1994.[5]The Declaration says that Israel and Jordan ended the official state of enmity and would start negotiations in order to achieve an "end to bloodshed and sorrow" and a just and lasting peace.[6]

Signing

On 26 October 1994, Jordan and Israel signed thepeace treaty[7]in a ceremony held in the Arava valley of Israel, north ofEilatand near the Jordanian border. Prime Minister Rabin and Prime MinisterAbdelsalam al-Majalisigned the treaty and thePresident of IsraelEzer Weizmanshook hands withKing Hussein.Clinton observed, accompanied by US Secretary of StateWarren Christopher.Thousands of colorfulballoonsreleased into the sky ended the event.[citation needed]

Egyptwelcomed the agreement whileSyriaignored it. The Lebanese militia groupHezbollahresisted the treaty and 20 minutes prior to the ceremony launchedmortarand rocket attacks against northernGalileetowns.[8]Israeli residents, who were forced to evacuate the towns for the safety of shelters, took with them transistorradiosand mobile TVs in order not to miss the historical moment of signing a second peace treaty with anArabstate.[citation needed]

Content

The peace treaty consists of a preamble, 30 articles, 5 annexes, and agreed minutes. It settles issues about territory, security, water, and co-operation on a range of subjects.[7]

Annex Iconcerns borders and sovereignty. SectionAnnex I (a)establishes an "administrative boundary" between Jordan and the West Bank, occupied by Israel in 1967, without prejudice to the status of that territory. Israel recognises Jordan's sovereignty over theNaharayim/Baqura area(includingPeace Island) and theTzofar/Al Ghamrarea.[9]
Annex IIconcerns water and related matters. Pursuant to Article 6 of the Treaty, Jordan and Israel agreed to establish a"Joint Water Committee"(Article VII).[10]
Annex IIIconcerns crime and illicit drugs.[11]
Annex IVconcerns environment.[12]
Annex Vconcerns border crossings, passports and visas. Article 6 stipulates that″Each Party has the right to refuse entry to a person, in accordance with its regulations″.[13]
TheAgreed Minutesof the treaty give some details about the implementation of the peace treaty.[14]

Main principles

  1. Borders:The international boundary between Israel and Jordan follows the Jordan and Yarmouk Rivers, the Dead Sea, the Emek Ha'Arava/Wadi Araba, and the Gulf of Aqaba.[9]The section of the line that separated Jordan from the West Bank was stipulated as "without prejudice to the status of [that] territory."[9]
  2. Diplomatic relations and co-operation:The Parties agreed to establish fulldiplomaticand consular relations and to exchange residentembassies,grant touristsvisas,open air travel and seaports, establish afree tradezone and anindustrial parkin the Arava. The agreement prohibits hostilepropaganda.
  3. Security and defense:Each country promised respect for the sovereignty and territory of each side, to not enter the other's territory without permission, and to cooperate againstterrorism.This included thwarting border attacks, smuggling, preventing any hostile attack against the other and not cooperating with any terrorist organization against the other.
  4. Jerusalem:Article 9 links the Peace Treaty to theIsraeli–Palestinian peace process.Israel recognized thespecial role of Jordan in Muslim Holy shrines in Jerusalemand committed itself to give high priority to the Jordanian historic role in these shrines in negotiations on the permanent status.
  5. Water:Israel agreed to give Jordan 50,000,000 cubic metres (1.8×109cu ft) of water each year and for Jordan to own 75% of the water from theYarmouk River.Both countries could develop other water resources andreservoirsand agreed to help each other survive droughts. Israel also agreed to help Jordan use desalination technology in order to find additional water.[15]
  6. Palestinian refugees:Israel and Jordan agreed to cooperate to help the refugees, including a four-way committee (Israel, Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinians) to try to work towards solutions.

Follow-up

Wolfsfeld et al. (2002) said that Prime Minister Rabin and King Hussein collaborated in selling the agreement to their people. The Knesset approved the agreement 92 to 3, but "The level of elite support in Jordan was considerably lower.... [A] number of political parties and institutions were opposed to making peace with Israel."

PresidentBill Clintonwith King Hussein of Jordan, Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahuand Palestinian leaderYasser Arafatin October 1996

Following the agreements, Israel and Jordan opened their borders. Several border-crossings were erected, allowing tourists, businessmen and workers to travel between the two countries.[16]Israeli tourists started to visit Jordan, many to see thesela ha'adom( "Red Rock" ) ofPetra– a stone-carved city of theNabataeanswhich had fascinated Israelis during the 1950s and 1960s, often luring adventurers to visit it secretly.

On 4 November 1995 the Israeli Prime MinisterYitzhak Rabin was assassinatedby a Jewish extremist, who aimed to undermine Rabin's peace efforts with the Palestinians.[17]Due to the close relationship forged with Rabin during the negotiations of the treaty, Hussein was invited to give a speech during Rabin's funeral in Jerusalem.[17]This was the first time Hussein had been in Jerusalem since the 1967 war.[17]Hussein drew parallels between Rabin's assassination and his grandfather's assassination in 1951: "We are not ashamed, nor are we afraid, nor are we anything but determined to continue the legacy for which my friend fell, as did my grandfather in this city when I was with him and but a boy."[17]

Jordan received $698.4 million of debt relief from the US government from 1995 onwards.[18]Jordan's signing of a peace treaty with Israel, and other issues, were met with disdain by Syria's presidentHafez Al-Assad.[19]The CIA handed the King a detailed report in December 1995 warning him of a Syrian plot to assassinate him and his brother Hassan.[19]A month later, the CIA sent Hussein another report warning Jordan of Iraqi plots to attack Western targets in Jordan to undermine Jordan's security due to its support for the Iraqi opposition.[19]In Israel, Shimon Peres of the leftist Labor Party andBenjamin Netanyahuof the right-wingLikudparty, were competing for the post of prime minister.[19]Hussein's popularity in Israel had peaked after the peace treaty was signed, and he was expected to express support for a candidate.[19]Hussein initially remained neutral, but later expressed support for Netanyahu.[19]Efraim Halevy,then head of the Israeli intelligence agency (Mossad), claims that Hussein had preferred Netanyahu over Peres as he had deeply mistrusted the latter.[20]The Israeli general election held on29 May 1996witnessed Netanyahu's ascension to the prime ministry.[19]

My distress is genuine and deep over the accumulating tragic actions which you have initiated at the head of the Government of Israel, making peace – the worthiest objective of my life – appear more and more like a distant elusive mirage. I could remain aloof if the very lives of all Arabs and Israelis and their future were not fast sliding towards an abyss of bloodshed and disaster, brought about by fear and despair. I frankly cannot accept your repeated excuse of having to act the way you do under great duress and pressure. I cannot believe that the people of Israel seek bloodshed and disaster and oppose peace. Nor can I believe that the most constitutionally powerful Prime Minister in Israeli history would act on other than his total convictions. The saddest reality that has been dawning on me is that I do not find you by my side in working to fulfill God's will for the final reconciliation of all the descendants of the children of Abraham. Your course of actions seems bent on destroying all I believe in or have striven to achieve...

FromKing Hussein's letter to Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahuon 9 March 1997

Hussein's support for Netanyahu soon backfired.[21]Israel's actions during the 1996Qana massacrein Southern Lebanon, the Likud government's decision to build settlements inEast Jerusalem,and the events at theTemple Mountwhere clashes between Palestinian and Israeli police ensued after Israeli tunnel diggings around the Mount, generated an uproar of criticism for Netanyahu in the Arab World.[21]On 9 March 1997 Hussein sent Netanyahu a three-page letter expressing his disappointment.[21]The King lambasted Netanyahu, with the letter's opening sentence stating: "My distress is genuine and deep over the accumulating tragic actions which you have initiated at the head of the Government of Israel, making peace – the worthiest objective of my life – appear more and more like a distant elusive mirage."[22]

Four days later, on 13 March, a Jordanian soldier patrolling the borders between Jordan and Israel in the north near theIsland of Peace,killed seven Israeli schoolgirlsand wounded six others.[21]The King, who was on an official visit to Spain, returned home immediately.[21]He travelled to the Israeli town ofBeit Shemeshto offer his condolences to the grieving families of the Israeli children killed.[21]He went on his knees in front of the families, telling them that the incident was "a crime that is a shame for all of us. I feel as if I have lost a child of my own. If there is any purpose in life it will be to make sure that all the children no longer suffer the way our generation did."[23]His gesture was received very warmly in Israel, and Hussein sent the families $1million in total as compensation for the loss of life.[21]The soldier was determined to be mentally unstable by a Jordanian military tribunal and was sentenced to 20years in prison, which he served entirely.[21]

Clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian militant groups in Gaza and the West Bank surfaced.[21]Hussein's wife,Queen Noor,later claimed her husband was having trouble sleeping: "Everything he had worked for all his life, every relationship he had painstakingly built on trust and respect, every dream of peace and prosperity he had had for Jordan's children, was turning into a nightmare. I really did not know how much more Hussein could take."[21]

On 27 September 1997 eightMossadagents entered Jordan using fake Canadian passports and attempted to assassinate Jordanian citizenKhaled Mashal,head of the militant Islamist Palestinian groupHamas.[21]Hussein was preparing for a 30-year Hamas-Israel truce three days prior to the attempt, after Hamas had launched two attacks in Jerusalem.[21]Two Mossad agents followed Mashal to his office and injected poison into his ears, but they were caught by Mashal's bodyguard.[21]The two agents were then held by the Jordanian police, while the six other agents hid in the Israeli embassy.[21]Furious, Hussein met with an Israeli delegate who attempted to explain the situation; the King said in a speech about the incident that he felt that somebody "had spat in his face."[21]Jordanian authorities requested Netanyahu to provide an antidote to save Mashal's life, but Netanyahu refused to do so.[21]Jordan then threatened to storm the Israeli embassy and capture the rest of the Mossad team, but Israel argued that it would be against theGeneva Conventions.[21]Jordan replied that the Geneva Conventions "do not apply to terrorists," and aspecial operationsteam headed by Hussein's sonAbdullahwas put in charge of the operation.[21]Hussein called American President Clinton and requested his intervention, threatening to annul the treaty if Israel did not provide the antidote.[21]Clinton later managed to get Israel's approval to reveal the name of the antidote, and complained about Netanyahu: "This man is impossible!"[21]Khaled Mashal recovered, but Jordan's relations with Israel deteriorated and Israeli requests to contact Hussein were rebuffed.[21]The Mossad operatives were released by Jordan after Israel agreed to release 23 Jordanian and 50 Palestinian prisoners including SheikhAhmed Yassin.[21]

Mounting opposition in Jordan to the peace treaty with Israel led Hussein to put greater restrictions onfreedom of speech.[21]Several dissidents were imprisoned includingLaith Shubeilat,a prominent Islamist. A few months into his imprisonment, the King personally gave Shubeilat, his fiercest critic, a ride home from theSwaqa prison.[24]However, the crackdown led the opposition groups in Jordan to boycott the1997 parliamentary elections.[21]In 1998 Jordan refused a secret request from Netanyahu to attack Iraq using Jordanian airspace after claiming Saddam held weapons of mass destruction.[21]

In December 2013, Israel and Jordan signed an agreement to build a desalination plant on the Red Sea, near the Jordanian port of Aqaba, as part of theRed Sea–Dead Sea Canal.[25]

In October 2018, Jordan notified Israel of its intention not to renew lands leased under Annex I of the agreement. The annex granted Jordan the right not to renew the lease ofNaharayim(Baqoura) andTzofar/Al Ghamrafter 25 years, given that a notice is given a year prior.[26]

  • Shimon Peres (left) with Yitzhak Rabin (center) and King Hussein of Jordan (right), prior to signing the Israel–Jordan peace treaty.
  • A handshake between King Hussein and PM Rabin, accompanied by President Clinton, during the Israel-Jordan peace negotiations, 25 July 1994
  • Balloons released into the air during the Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty signing ceremony at the Arava Terminal
  • King Hussein lights Yitzhak Rabin's cigarette at the royal residence inAqaba,shortly after the signing of the peace treaty, 26 October 1994
  • U.S. President Bill Clinton watches Jordan's King Hussein and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shaking hands, October 1994
  • Excerpts from the signing of the peace agreement with Jordan in a video clip of theChannel 2 news company,1994

See also

Notes

  1. ^Hebrew:הסכם השלום בין ישראל לירדן;transliterated:Heskem Ha-Shalom beyn Yisra'el Le-Yarden;Arabic:معاهدة السلام الأردنية الإسرائيلية;Arabic transliteration:Mu'ahadat as-Salaam al-'Urdunniyah al-Isra'yliyah

References

  1. ^Ahren, Raphael; Rasgon, Adam."Colder than ever: 25 years on, Israel and Jordan ignore peace treaty anniversary".www.timesofisrael.com.Retrieved26 October2020.
  2. ^Clyde Haberman(27 October 1994)."Israel and Jordan Sign a Peace Accord".The New York Times.Retrieved22 September2022.
  3. ^Disengagement from the West Bank.www.kinghussein.gov.jo. Retrieved December 2013
  4. ^Hussein surrenders claims on West Bank to the P.L.O.; U.S. peace plan in jeopardy; Internal Tensions.John Kifner, New York Times, 1 August 1988
  5. ^The Washington Declaration:Israel – Jordan – The United States; July 25th, 1994.On the Avalon project
  6. ^"The Washington Declaration".Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 25 July 1994.Retrieved7 May2012.
  7. ^abTreaty of Peace Between the State of Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.26 October 1994. On the Knesset website
  8. ^THE JORDAN-ISRAEL ACCORD: THE OVERVIEW; ISRAEL AND JORDAN SIGN A PEACE ACCORD,New York Times, 26 October 1994
  9. ^abcAnnex I.jewishvirtuallibrary
  10. ^Annex II—Water and Related Matters.IMFA, 25 August 1999
  11. ^Annex III—Combatting Crime and Drugs.jewishvirtuallibrary
  12. ^Annex IV—Environment.jewishvirtuallibrary
  13. ^Annex V—Border Crossing Points Procedures Between Israel and Jordan.jewishvirtuallibrary
  14. ^"Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty—Agreed Minutes".www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org.Retrieved12 November2017.
  15. ^Susskind, Lawrence; Shafiqul Islam (2012)."Water Diplomacy: Creating Value and Building Trust in Transboundary Water Negotiations".Science & Diplomacy.1(3).
  16. ^Lukacs, Yehuda (12 November 1999).Israel, Jordan, and the Peace Process.Syracuse University Press.ISBN9780815627203.Retrieved12 November2017– via Google Books.
  17. ^abcdShlaim 2009,p. 532–546.
  18. ^"U.S. DEBT REDUCTION ACTIVITIES FY 1990 THROUGH FY 1999"(PDF).treasury.gov.United States Department of the Treasury. February 2000.Retrieved6 September2024.
  19. ^abcdefgShlaim 2009,p. 547–560.
  20. ^Halevy, Efraim (2007).Man in the Shadows: Inside the Middle East Crisis with a Man Who Led the Mossad.St. Martin's Publishing Group. p. 89.ISBN9781429904988.
  21. ^abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyShlaim 2009,p. 560–581.
  22. ^"In Their Own Words: The Views of Hussein and Netanyahu".The New York Times.12 March 1997.Retrieved20 December2019.
  23. ^Jerrold Kessel (16 March 1997)."With condolence visit to Israel, King Hussein spurs talks".CNN.Retrieved22 February2011.
  24. ^"King Hussein Gives His Foe Ride From Jail".The New York Times.Reuters. 10 November 1996.Retrieved4 December2018.
  25. ^Vick, Karl (9 December 2013)."Can an Unlikely Middle East Pact Give Life to the Dead Sea?".Time.Retrieved12 November2017– via world.time.com.
  26. ^Jordan to nix parts of peace treaty with Israel, reclaim territories,YNET, 21 October 2018

Bibliography

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Israel–Jordan_peace_treaty&oldid=1257915500"