Despite tremendous pressure, Jordan’s King Abdullah II announces an end to the 1994 peace treaty’s land-leasing arrangement.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II announced on Sunday that Israel’s lease of two parcels of Jordanian land on the Israel-Jordan border – in al-Baqura (also known as the “Island of Peace”) in the north, and al-Ghamr in the south – was over. The leasing arrangement was part of the peace treaty signed between the two countries in 1994.
“Officially, the part of the peace treaty’s annex relating to al-Baqura and al-Ghamr is terminated,” King Abdullah declared during his Speech from the Throne at the opening of the Fourth Ordinary Session of the 18th Parliament. He went on to say that Jordan’s full sovereignty had now been imposed on every square inch of the country.
“Crises in the region have cast a shadow over Jordan, and Jordan has paid the price for its positions,” the king said. He underscored his country’s commitment to the Palestinian cause, and said that Jordan’s support for the Palestinian people’s aspiration to establish an independent state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, and for the protection of Muslim and Christian holy sites there “will remain unchanging and uncompromising.”
Yahya al-Saud, a Jordanian lawmaker and chairman of the Palestine Committee in the Jordanian Parliament, told The Media Line that there was no truth to reports published in the Israeli media that the Jordanian government had extended the lease on the two parcels of land.
“The Israeli media don’t publish the truth but fake news to mislead the people. Tomorrow the Jordanian foreign minister is going to hold a press conference from al-Baqura and al-Ghamr, and parliament’s Palestine Committee might participate in it,” al-Saud said.
When asked about the aftermath of the Jordanian decision, he said that Jordanian lawmakers demanded cancellation of the entire peace agreement with “the Zionist entity.”
“We don’t really care how the decision is going to affect our relations with Israel, which doesn’t respect any agreements or international resolutions,” al-Saud said.
Nazar Amar, a deputy spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, told The Media Line that the ministry had “no comment at this time” on Jordan’s cancellation of the lease.
The 1994 peace treaty includes an annex stating that Israel recognizes Jordanian sovereignty over al-Baqura, a 250-acre (1-square-kilometer) territory, and al-Ghamr, which measures 300 acres, and that Israeli farmers have the right to cultivate these parcels of land under a 25-year renewable lease.
In October 2018, after much domestic pressure, including a wave of protests in Amman, King Abdullah announced that there would be no extension. The protests were sparked, in part, by Israel’s handling of an altercation in which a security guard at its embassy in Amman killed two Jordanian citizens, other incidents that resulted in Israel arresting Jordanian citizens, and perceived violations of the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
In the embassy incident, Israel asserted that its security guard acted in self-defense, and rejected Jordanian demands that it prosecute him. Sources close to King Abdullah told The Media Line that the king felt humiliated when the guard, returning to Israel, was given a hero’s welcome and invited to the office of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. This caused a rift in Israeli-Jordanian relations that was only partially mended when Israel agreed to pay compensation to the bereaved Jordan families.
As part of the 1994 peace treaty, Israel agreed to recognize Jordanian control of the Jerusalem Wakf, or Muslim religious trust, through which the Hashemite kingdom administers and provides funding for the city’s Muslim holy sites. Violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police at these sites have been another source of conflict and discord between Israel and Jordan.
Moeen al-Taher, a Jordanian political analyst and writer at the Institute for Palestine Studies in Amman, told The Media Line that Israeli-Jordanian relations have been very tense lately, with tremendous pressure on both sides regarding the leasing of al-Baqura and al-Ghamr. Given the state of bilateral relations, “Jordan would never have agreed to renew the lease.”
Asked whether Jordan would respect the property rights of Israelis whose families allegedly purchased land in al-Baqura or al-Ghamr prior to Israel’s independence in 1948, and whether Jordan would allow Israeli farmers to harvest the crops they planted at the sites over the past year, al-Taher answered, “If so, Jordan must demand [that Israel respect] the property rights of Jordanian citizens who owned land inside Israel prior to the 1948 and 1967 wars, in Haifa, Jaffa and elsewhere.”
“All kinds of relations between the two countries are going to be affected by this move. There might be an Israeli reaction to the decision; previously, Netanyahu’s son [Yair] threatened to cut water [which Israel provides to Jordan according to the peace treaty],” al-Taher said.
However, former Israeli Ambassador to Jordan Dr. Oded Eran told The Media Line that there would be no effect on Israeli-Jordanian commercial relations, as the volume of trade was in any case not large, and leasing the two enclaves wasn’t the most important issue on the agenda.
“All of the problems, at all levels, on the bilateral level and in relation to the Palestinians, depend on a dialog between the king and whoever is the prime minister of Israel. As long as there is no dialog – and currently, there is no dialog on that level – it is impossible to solve the problems between the two states,” Eran said.
Shai Hadar, the manager of the Israeli tourist site of Naharayim, adjacent to al-Baqura, confirmed to The Media Line that the gate from the Israeli side was closed and locked all day Sunday. Neither tourists nor farmers were permitted to enter the Jordanian territory.
“Only I and the army have the key to the gate. We didn’t open it for anyone today. No one is allowed to go inside today,” Hadar added. “Not today, not tomorrow, and not the day after tomorrow. … It’s a very sad day to come and see the gate locked. … Yesterday we had thousands of people here. Today, only the media.”
Hadar explained that cancellation of the lease represented a big loss for local Israeli farmers since there was not much agricultural land on the Israeli side. On the Jordanian side, he said, Israeli farmers had cultivated about 205 acres, and the land was very good and fertile.
These farmers “cannot have other land inside Israel because we simply don’t have any spare land to give. Nobody has. It’s a very big loss for agriculture, and it’s also a very big loss for me, as a tour guide,” Hadar said.
Steven Ganot contributed to this report.