King Abdullah’s UN attack on Israel overlooks Jordan’s own troubled history - opinion

King Abdullah of Jordan used his UN General Assembly address to criticize Israel's occupation, but the article argues his moral stance is undermined by Jordan's own history of annexation, disenfranchisement, and violent conflict with Palestinians, including the 1970-71 Black September civil war.

King Abdullah of Jordan used his September 23 UN General Assembly address to criticize Israel's occupation of the West Bank, calling it a violation of international law. This opinion piece by Neville Teller argues that the king's moral posture is undermined by Jordan's own troubled history with Palestinians and international law. The article details Jordan's 1950 annexation of the West Bank, which was rejected by the Arab League and most of the world as lacking international legal validity. It then describes Jordan's 1988 disengagement, which stripped approximately one million West Bank Palestinians of their Jordanian citizenship, a move Human Rights Watch described as rendering them stateless. The piece also recounts the 1970-71 Black September conflict, in which Jordan's military fought Palestinian militias, resulting in thousands of deaths and the expulsion of Yasser Arafat and the PLO to Lebanon. The article concludes that while this history does not resolve current legal questions, it complicates Abdullah's position of unqualified moral denunciation of Israel.