UN, EU, Jordan & USA keep mum on Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine
The United Nations (UN), European Union (EU) Jordan and America (USA) continue to keep mum by refusing to comment on the Saudi Arabian proposal to unify Jordan, Gaza and part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) into one territorial entity to be named “The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine”
The detailed Saudi proposal was set out in an article published on 8 June written by Ali Shihabi – a confidante of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman – designated to be Saudi Arabia’s next king.
The Saudi plan directly challenges UN, EU, Jordan and US positions argued for decades that the only solution to ending the conflict between Arabs and Jews is the creation for the first time in history of a 23rd Arab State between Israel and Jordan.
Despite their unrelenting and determined efforts to bring this solution to fruition since its adoption by the EU at the Venice Summit on 13 June 1980 – that goal has proved incapable of being achieved.
On 31 July 1988 Jordan’s King Hussein hopped on the EU bandwagon and:
- Terminated Jordanian citizenship enjoyed by all West Bank Arab residents for the previous 38 years.
- Renounced all Jordanian claims to the West Bank annexed by Jordan between 1950 and 1967
- Dissolved the Jordanian parliament (half of whose members were West Bank representatives),
- Ceased salary payments to 21,000 West Bank civil servants, and
- Ordered that West Bank Palestinian passports be converted to two-year travel documents.
Jordan left the fate of the West Bank and its abandoned Jordanian-citizen population in the hands of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).
The PLO subsequently rejected offers of a separate state proposed by the:
- 1993 Oslo Accords
- 2003 Bush Roadmap
- 2020 Trump Plan and
- Israel in July 2000 , September 2008 and June 2009
The EU and Jordan push for this separate-state solution between Israel and Jordan was made as recently as 2 June 2022:
“[The EU and Jordan] reiterated that the only path to a just, lasting and comprehensive resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the two-state solution that ends occupation and leads to the establishment, of an independent contiguous, sovereign and viable Palestinian State, on the lines of 4 June 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, living side by side with the State of Israel in peace, in accordance with international law and UN Security Council resolutions”
Their failure to address the Saudi initiative – made 6 days later – could see the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution being renamed the State of Palestine solution – with the Hashemites possibly losing their custodianship of the Islamic Holy sites in Jerusalem.
President Biden has followed the EU and Jordan – Deputy Ambassador Richard Mills telling the UN Security Council on 27 June 2022 – without mentioning the Saudi proposal:
“The current U.S. administration continues to affirm its strong support for a two-state solution, which remains the best way to ensure Israel’s future as a democratic and Jewish state alongside a sovereign, viable Palestinian state.”
The UN and its agencies repeat this failed mantra ad nauseum.
Not one of these four major players has yet uttered one word specifically addressing Shihabi’s plan to unify Jordan, Gaza and part of the West Bank – which Shihabi justifies on one indisputable fact:
“Jordanians and Palestinians are as similar as any people can be. They are Sunni Arabs from the same neighbourhood. Merging them will not create any long-term ethnic or sectarian fault lines.”
No groups were defined and identified as:
- Jordanians: Before 1950.
- Palestinians: Until 1964.
Two States – Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine – not three states – is the Saudi key that can finally bring peace to the Middle East.
David Singer is a Sydney lawyer and a foundation member of the International Analysts Network
