Jordanian Occupation Background

Jordanian Occupation of Judea and Samaria

Jordanian Occupation Background

The Armistice lines of 1949 (also known as the Green Line) were drawn at the end of Israel’s War of Independence. These were not final borders, just a demarcation of where the fighting halted. Jordan illegally occupied Judea and Samaria from 1948-1967. The official annexation took place on April 24, 1950. These areas, including the Old City of Jerusalem, which is physically in the Eastern part of Israel’s capital, had been inhabited by Jews for centuries. During this time, Jordan ethnically cleansed the historical heartland of Israel by massacring and/or expelling the Jewish population, making that area Judenrein (Jew-free) for the first time in millennia.

While Jordan annexed the area, only two countries short-term recognized Jordan’s sovereignty over the land – the United Kingdom and Pakistan.

It should be noted that Jordan did not, nor did any Arab, seek to establish an independent second Arab state (Jordan being the first Arab state in the land of Israel since 1922), within the Jewish homeland during this time. Indeed, those Arabs living in Judea & Samaria freely became Jordanian citizens.

Within the armistice agreement, free access to holy sites was promised. Jordan did not hold up its end of the bargain.

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Jordan's Betrayal of the Armistice Agreement:

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Not only was access to holy sites denied to Jews, but to Christians as well; even the Muslims living in the then sovereign parts of Israel were forbidden to enter the Old City.
In addition, Jordan destroyed no less than 58 synagogues and denied Jews access to the Western Wall.
Jordan desecrated graves of the centuries-old Mount of Olives cemetery and used the stones to line pathways to build bathroom facilities for the Jordanian army in the region.
For 19 years, the Jordanian occupying forces used Judea & Samaria as a platform for sniper fire into the western portion of Jerusalem, making life for Israelis living over the Green Line insufferable.
Jordan resettled some of its citizens to Judea & Samaria
At the conclusion of the Six-Day War in June of 1967, King Hussein of Jordan admitted that Jordan was the Arab state in Palestine.

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Once Israel reunited Jerusalem in 1967, and gained back its rightful territory in Judea and Samaria, the myth of the ‘Palestinians’ was created in conjunction with the Arab-favoring KGB in an antisemitic political maneuver. The KGB realized that Israel could never be destroyed militarily, but that a propaganda war could be launched in academia and within international NGOs, and thus Operation SIG was born.

Those who claim a ‘Palestinian’ ethnicity in Judea & Samaria, occupy two-thirds of the area. Unlike the Jordanians, the Israelis never ethnically cleansed any area of Arabs. Muslims, Christians, and Jews, among others, are able to worship freely at their respective holy places. Decades later, the egregious OSLO Accords (1993) fractured Judea and Samaria into Areas A, B, and C.