King Hussein of Jordan dies

On 7 February 1999 King Hussein of Jordan dies after ruling the country since 1953. Jordan, a relatively new state, came into being in 1946 when that part of the British Mandate for Palestine ended. King Hussein faced continuously difficult and life-threatening tasks throughout his reign. Not so strange given the myriad of conflicts in the region. He thought first and foremost of preserving the rule of himself and his family and maintain Jordan as a sovereign country. Other issues and the needs of others, especially the Palestinians were secondary.
A friend of the West, but also taking into consideration Palestinians and Arab rulers, he did a balancing act, of which few of his contemporaries succeeded as well as he did. In spite of numerous challenges and opponents inside and outside of Jordan he managed to stay in power. The following is just a fraction of what occurred during his reign of 46 year’s.  His son Crown Prince Abdullah took over as King of Jordan the same day Hussein died and the challenges continue to this day.

King Hussein of Jordan.

His son becomes the new King Abdullah II and his wife Rania Queen.

Background
King Hussein was crowned on his 18^th birthday on 2 May 1953. He had got a difficult task, and he knew it. The following is just a fraction of what occurred the next 46 years.  Hussein’s grandfather, Abdullah, was part of the Hashemite family that had ruled the Hejaz region of today’s Saudi Arabia.  During World War I the Hashemite co-operated with the British, led an uprising against the Ottoman Empire, and drove them out of Hejaz, Palestine and Damascus in 1917-18. Abdullah’s brother Faysal ruled Syria for a brief period in accordance with the agreement they had with the British. But the French threw him out and took over, in accordance with a secret Sykes-Picot agreement which the French and British had made in secret. Abdullah wanted to support his brother and assembled a military force.  The British stopped him and Winston Churchill offered him the territory on the East Bank of the Jordan, Transjordan in 1922. He accepted and ruled under the British Mandate. Faysal was offered the Iraqi throne and accepted it. In 1946 the British granted Transjordan full independence. The British left from the other part of their Mandate in May 1948 after having let hundreds of thousands of Jew immigrate from harsh conditions and persecution in Europe. The Arabs of Palestine and the rest of the Middle East didn’t accept this take-over, and on 15 May 1948 Abdullah let his Arab Legion attack Israel alongside forces from Egypt, Syria and Iraq. Abdullah’s goal though was not to throw out the Jews, but to take the West Bank of Jordan. This was arranged in a secret deal with Israel. Jordan occupied and later annexed the West Bank. The war led to an influx of Palestinians, and many of them were displeased with Abdullah. A Palestinian killed him when he visited the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on 20 July 1951. Hussein, then Prince, was present and was profoundly impacted. His father, Talal, was declared mentally ill in 1952 and abdicated.

Struggle to stay in power

The Free Officers and Nasser took power in Egypt in 1952 and led a pan-Arab policy. Supported by the Soviet Union Nasser automatically came into conflict with the Western powers as a kind of Cold War default. Nasser successfully used radio to transmit his message throughout the Arab world. Hussein feeling threatened to be overtaken was performing a balancing act. He refused to sign the pro-western Baghdad defence pact in 1955. And he dismissed his long-time British military advisors, including Glubb an efficient leader of the Arab legion.  But after a coup attempt in 1957 by Palestinians he banned political parties and set up a royal dictatorship. The US saw him as a support against Soviet influence and gave him significant financial and political support from then and throughout his life. Nasser became leader of the United Arab Republic (UAR) in 1958. Hussein supported his brother Faysal in Iraq in a union, but the same year Faysal was killed in a coup that eventually led the Ba’ath party to power. Threatened, Hussein asked the US and UK for military and economic support, and got it.

Loosing the West Bank retaining the Kingdom

In the 1960 the Palestinain political-military organizations PLO and Fatah gained strength in Jordan. With Egyptian and Syrian support they attacked Israel from Jordan. The Israelis retaliated, and tensions grew between Jordan and all parties.  But Hussein came to terms with Egypt and Syria and participated in the June 1967 war. It was a watershed in Middle-East history. The Israelis smashed the Arab forces, and Jordan lost the West Bank. Thousands of Palestinian refugees came to Jordan, and became maybe half the country’s population. Though he thought that if he had not supported Egypt and Syria, the Palestinians would have taken power from him. The economic losses were great, among others from tourists in Jerusalem. He sought to get the West Bank and continued secret talks with Israel, in opposition to the Arab summit in Khartoum in 1967 deciding not to do so. Yasser Arafat and PLO more and more openly opposed Hussein, and the crisis reached a climax in the “Black September” of 1969. Hussein declared martial law, and civil war erupted with thousands, mostly Palestinians getting killed.  PLO was forced out of Jordan and went to Lebanon.

 

King Hussein (right) and Egyptian President Nasser smiling in 1964,  but serious opponents.

Hussein declined to participate in the attack of the 1973 Yum Kippur war, but sent tanks supporting Syria when they came on the defensive. In 1974 the Arab League decided that PLO was the sole representative of the Palestinain people, and Hussein responded by excluding the West Bank from the Kingdom. Under Menachem Begins premiership in Israel relations became poor, and Hussein was worried about the growing Israeli view that Jordan was the state for Palestinians. After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and the expulsion of PLO, Hussein sought closer relations with Arafat to improve his standing among Palestinians.  In 1986 he was frustrated with Arafat and changed his mind. In 1987 the First Intifadah broke out, and Hussein understanding the threat to him, tried to take leadership of it, but Arafat snubbed him.

New problems

In 1989 Jordan held the first Parliamentary elections since 1967. The Islamic Action Front (Muslim Brotherhood) gained more seats than the pro-government candidates. Then in 1991 Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and Jordan was split when two of its allies were at war. Most Jordanians supported Saddam and trade with Iraq was crucial to Jordan. King Hussein gave his support to Saddam and Kuwait’s wealthy allies cut aid to Jordan. Soon though, the US sought King Hussein’s support in support of Israeli peace negotiations. In 1994 Jordan and Israel signed a peace agreement. He also signed agreements and pledged support for Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank including Jerusalem, and participated actively in negotiations between PLO and Israel. He was getting ill and proclaimed his son Abdullah to be his successor, instead of his brother Crown Prince Hassan. Then on 7 February 1999 King Hussein died.

Thousands come to the streets at the funeral.

President Clinton and other leaders came to pay tribute.

I am open to your comments and proposals.
Warmly
Bjarte Bjørsvik