Why has Jordan cancelled Biden visit after Israel bombing of Gaza hospital? | Israel-Palestine conflict News

It was to be a centrepiece of United States President Joe Biden’s go to to the Center East on Wednesday: a visit to Jordan to satisfy a spread of Arab leaders amid Israel’s incessant bombing of the Gaza Strip.

However on Tuesday, Jordan cancelled that summit after an Israeli air strike hit the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza Metropolis, killing at the very least 500 individuals and sparking world outrage.

That call underscored a fancy historical past between Jordan and Israel that stretches again to the very founding of the latter state and continues to affect regional dynamics.

The 2 neighbours spent many years formally at battle however all the time maintained contact, which finally led to the signing of a peace treaty in 1994. But their relationship has remained uneasy with the shadow of the Palestinian wrestle for statehood and justice hanging over it.

Turning again the many years

Greater than 700,000 Palestinians had been ethnically cleansed from their ancestral lands in 1948 by Jewish militias and Israeli forces in an occasion the Palestinians know because the Nakba, or “disaster” in Arabic.

In the identical 12 months, shortly after a United Nations plan to partition Palestinian land on the finish of a British mandate, a army coalition of Arab states which additionally included Jordan entered the territory to combat Israel.

By the top of the battle, Jordan was answerable for East Jerusalem and the West Financial institution.

Jordan was additionally a key participant within the Six-Day Battle in 1967, having aligned itself with Egypt’s then-President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

By the top of that battle, which marked a serious victory for Israeli forces, Jordan had misplaced management of each East Jerusalem and the West Financial institution.

Jordan and Israel, which had been believed to have maintained backchannels even throughout occasions of battle, signed a peace treaty in 1994. Jordan turned the second Arab nation after Egypt to establish diplomatic relations with Israel.

How did the treaty change issues?

The peace treaty happened shortly after the primary of the Oslo Accords in 1993, which established the Palestinian Authority. Israel and Jordan additionally signed a declaration on the US White Home that dedicated them to finish enmities and obtain lasting peace.

The peace deal elevated safety cooperation between the 2 nations and paved the best way for organising bold financial tasks. So-called Qualifying Industrial Zones in Jordan allowed it to export duty-free commodities to the US if they’d specified Israeli inputs. This association later morphed right into a free commerce settlement between Jordan and the US.

Israel and Jordan reached an settlement to handle the latter’s appreciable water issues, committing Israel to share its water. In 2014, they signed a deal for gasoline from Israeli fields to be provided to Jordan for a 15-year interval.

Ebb and circulation of relations

However the truth that the Palestinian concern remained unresolved, together with a number of high-profile incidents through the years, has affected relations.

A Jordanian soldier opened hearth on a bunch of Israeli schoolgirls in 1997, killing seven. In the identical 12 months, Mossad brokers who had been despatched to Amman to assassinate Hamas political chief Khaled Mashal had been caught. Jordan demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hand over the antidote to the substance that was used to poison Mashal, however he did so solely after then-US President Invoice Clinton straight intervened.

Extra not too long ago, a 17-year-old Palestinian in 2017 stabbed an off-duty safety guard on the Israeli Embassy in Jordan, which prompted the safety guard to shoot his weapon and kill the Palestinian and one other man. The embassy was closed for six months and Netanyahu hailed the guard when he went again to Israel.

In late 2019, Jordan’s King Abdullah II stated relations with Israel had been “at an all-time low”.

Since then, relations appeared to have improved, with several top-level meetings taking place, together with the primary go to by an Israeli president to Jordan final 12 months.

Israel’s battle on Gaza might reverse that pattern.

Jordan as custodian of Al-Aqsa

The Hashemite royal household of Jordan, which has dominated the nation since 1921, has additionally served because the custodian of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque for practically a century.

In 1924, the Supreme Muslim Council, which was the very best physique answerable for Muslim group affairs in British-controlled Palestine on the time, selected a member of the Hashemite dynasty because the custodian of the mosque. Al-Aqsa is amongst Islam’s holiest websites and one of many oldest surviving examples of Islamic structure.

The Jordanian royal household has renovated Al-Aqsa a number of occasions previously century.

Jordan’s issues in the present day

But in the present day, Jordan additionally has extra sensible challenges too, as Israel’s battle on Gaza intensifies.

Jordan is reliant on its water agreements with Israel. Its relations with Israel and the US function a lift to its economic system, which suffered a blow due to its dependence on tourism in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However Jordan can’t afford to see the battle escalate.

It has condemned Israel’s bombing of Gaza and the serious humanitarian concerns which have arisen because of it, according to its advocacy for the decision of the Palestinian concern.

Already host to hundreds of thousands of migrants from Palestine, Syria and Iraq, Jordan can also be extremely cautious of a brand new inflow of Palestinian refugees, who’ve traditionally been pushed out of their homelands by Israel to by no means have the ability to return.

Jordan has insisted that Palestinians want to stay of their homeland if they’re to kind a state of their very own sooner or later.