Summary
The October 1994 Jordan-Israel peace treaty whose abrogation Jordanian protesters have demanded on every anniversary and again since 7 October 2023 (From the River to the Sea: Essays for a Free Palestine, lines 1776-1856).
Details
- King Hussein signed the “Treaty of Peace between the State of Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan” in October 1994; the Jordanian parliament ratified it without accessing and reviewing its five annexes, footnotes, and listed maps. In exchange the US waived Jordan’s debts and made Jordan one of its most important allies in the region (lines 1776-1780).
- The majority of Jordanians have rejected the treaty; a narrow segment of business elites was enthusiastic about its trade potential. Protest chants run: “Wadi Araba isn’t peace, it’s surrender. Wadi Araba is treason.” (lines 1780-1796)
- The 2016 gas deal binds Jordan to buy electricity from Israel for fifteen years at a price of $10 billion, importing gas from the Leviathan field; to ratify it King Abdullah II had to dissolve Parliament and dismiss the government (lines 1784-1790).
- On 16 November 2023 Jordan backed out of the UAE-brokered water-for-energy deal, and Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi said the peace deal “will have to remain on the back burner gathering dust for now” (lines 1828-1834).
Related pages
From the River to the Sea: Essays for a Free Palestine, Samar Saeed, Camp David Accords, Oslo Accords, Normalization, Al-Aqsa Mosque