Transfer of Palestinians an existential threat to Jordan

Tens of thousands of Jordanians across the kingdom battled cold and rain after Friday prayers to demonstrate against President Donald Trump’s shocking declaration that the US would “take over” and “own” Gaza, while displacing more than 2 million Palestinians who live there.
Trump made the outrageous remarks during last week’s press conference at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A few days before, he had called for the displacement of Gaza residents to Jordan and Egypt, supposedly on humanitarian grounds. He suggested that Gazans would remain in exile temporarily or long-term.
His statements were quickly rebuffed by the leaders of Jordan and Egypt, as well as by the Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia, the Arab League and dozens of world capitals. More importantly, they were rejected by war-weary Gazans who are trying to cope with catastrophic living conditions in the wake of a shaky ceasefire agreement following 15 months of an Israeli onslaught that left 90 percent of the Strip in ruins and more than 50,000 dead.
Following Trump’s declaration, which sent ripples across Washington and world capitals, his aides tried to contextualize what had been said. They said that no US troops would be sent to Gaza and that Gazans would not be forcibly removed from their native land. They added that the US was willing to help in the cleanup effort but would not be involved in the reconstruction.
Trump’s call on Jordan to receive the people of Gaza came less than a week before King Abdullah was scheduled to meet the US president at the White House. The call to displace millions of Palestinians, while quickly welcomed by Israeli extremists, sent shock waves through Amman. No one had imagined that a sitting US president would depart so far from decades-old policy on the Israeli-Palestinian issue in a way that would also threaten the stability of a close ally — in this case, Jordan.
King Abdullah managed to cope with Trump’s Middle Eastern policy during his first term, but not without significant political losses. Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem, including the occupied Eastern part, as Israel’s capital delivered a severe blow to the two-state solution, which Jordan, along with the rest of the international community, champions. That move undercut Jordan’s role as custodian of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. And when Trump unveiled his peace plan to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, King Abdullah was quick to reject it, along with the Palestinians.
Now, Trump has come up with a provocative proposal that Jordan and Egypt receive almost 2 million Palestinians from Gaza. And when the two countries reject such a proposal, Trump doubles down by saying they will eventually do just that.
So, just two weeks after Trump was sworn in, Jordan has found itself in the eye of a political storm as a result of the president’s crude suggestion. The fact that the displacement of Palestinians is against international law — a crime of ethnic cleansing — does not seem to have deterred Trump. On Thursday, he suggested that Israel should hand over Gaza after finishing off Hamas, a disturbing sign that the war could resume at any moment.

The fear is that Israel could use the US president’s suggestions to push for the annexation of the West Bank. 

Osama Al-Sharif

But aside from the legal caveats to Trump’s proposal, what is worrying to Jordan is that the US president is now embracing an extremist Israeli proposition that seeks to expel Palestinians from their historical homeland and transfer them to Jordan. The Likud and other ultranationalist Israelis have peddled the notion that Jordan should become the de facto Palestinian state.
King Abdullah has made the transfer of Palestinians, especially from the West Bank, a red line for the kingdom. His foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, has said that any transfer would be interpreted as a declaration of war. Jordanian lawmakers have called for the enactment of a law that prohibits the transfer of Palestinians into Jordan.
Jordan has become an even closer ally of the US in the past decade, joining the war against Daesh and, more recently, allowing America to use Jordanian airbases. The kingdom’s military importance for the US has grown following the latter’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. In return, the US supports the Jordanian treasury with billions of dollars annually through grants and soft loans.
Trump’s decision to suspend all USAID activities worldwide has particularly hit Jordan. The US agency is involved in tens of projects covering health, education, sanitation, Syrian refugee support, water, and economic and political development. Amman fears that Trump could use Jordan’s financial and economic dependency on the US as a tool to extract concessions.
But while a majority of pundits believe that Trump’s Gaza proposal will never fly, the fear is that Israel could use the president’s suggestions to push for the annexation of the West Bank, which would eventually lead to forcing its Palestinian inhabitants to leave for Jordan.
Unlike Egypt’s relationship with the people of Gaza, tens of thousands of West Bankers are also Jordanian citizens. The crossings between the kingdom and the West Bank have been open since the 1967 war and thousands use the bridges between the two banks of the River Jordan every day.
Israel has been waging a vicious war against Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank for three weeks now. Under this far-right Israeli government, Palestinians in the West Bank have been subjected to a wave of settler attacks, economic strangulation, expropriation of land, mass incarceration and collective punishment — all aiming to push residents to leave.
The death of the two-state solution and normalization of such calls to transfer Palestinians pose an existential threat to the kingdom.
Transfer would mean the end of the right of return for almost 2 million Palestine refugees already living in Jordan. While supporting Palestinian steadfastness on their land is the first line of defense, Jordan is taking nothing for granted.
Trump’s Gaza proposition is dangerous and must be rejected outright by all. However, the future of Gaza is now a significant challenge for the world community. What Trump has failed to understand is that the fundamental Palestinian right to self-determination must be honored and recognized. They have earned that right and must be allowed to exercise it.
Jordan will never be an alternative homeland for the Palestinians. Transfer can never be normalized or considered as an option.

• Osama Al-Sharif is a journalist and political commentator based in Amman. X: @plato010