Resolution Adopted by the House of Deputies on the Annexation of West Bank
(April 24, 1950)
In May 1948 the Arab Legion overran the eastern part of Jerusalem and occupied the Old City and
its Holy Places. During the nineteen years of Jordanian administration, Jordan refused to honour its
undertaking in the armistice
agreement to accord free access to the Holy Places and to cultural
institutions, and use of the Jewish cemetery on the Mount
of Olives (Section III, Document 6, Article VIII, and Section V, subsection
E, Documents 15 and 16).
Jews were barred from the Old City and denied access to the Western
Wall and other Holy Places. The Jewish Quarter in the Old City was
destroyed; fifty-eight synagogues were also destroyed or desecrated.
Thousands of tombstones in the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives
were destroyed to pave a road and build fences and latrines in Jordanian
army camps.
Moslem residents of Israel were not permitted to visit their Holy Places
in East Jerusalem. Christians, too, were discriminated against. In 1958,
Jordanian legislation required all members of the Brotherhood of the
Holy Sepulchre to adopt Jordanian citizenship. In 1965, Christian institutions
were forbidden to acquire any land or rights in or near Jerusalem. In
1966, Christian schools were compelled to close on Fridays instead of
Sundays, customs privileges of Christian religious institutions were
abolished Jerusalem was bisected by barbed wire, concrete barriers and
walls. On a number of occasions Jordanian soldiers opened fire on Jewish
Jerusalem. In May 1967, the Temple
Mount became a military base for the Jordanian National Guard.
In April 1950, Jordan annexed the areas it had occupied by military
force in 1948. On 24 April 1950, the Jordan House of Deputies and House
of Notables, in a joint session, adopted the following Resolution annexing
the West Bank and Jerusalem:
In the expression of the people's faith in the efforts spent by His
Majesty, Abdullah, toward attainment of natural aspirations, and basing
itself on the right of self-determination and on the existing de facto
position between Jordan and Palestine and their national, natural
and geographic unity and their common interests and living space,
Parliament, which represents both sides of the Jordan, resolves this
day and declares:
First, its support for complete unity between the two sides of the
Jordan and their union into one State, which is the Hashemite Kingdom
of Jordan, at whose head reigns King Abdullah Ibn al Husain, on a
basis of constitutional representative government and equality of
the rights and duties of all citizens...
Sources: Israel
Ministry of Foreign Affairs |