The Israel-Arab Reader (54 page)

The special quality of our relationship is not a whimsical description that we have given to ourselves, but is a scientific fact which has made the Palestine question a central daily concern in our life and the pivot of our defense, foreign, and development policies. If the Palestine question is one of the first priorities of our brothers' foreign and defense policies, to us and to you the Palestine question is our top priority. Therefore, Palestine was never a political tool which we used to achieve our national or selfish aims. Palestine embraces Jerusalem, the cradle of Jesus, may peace be upon him; the place from which Muhammad, may peace be upon him, ascended to the heavens; the playground of Al-Shafi'i [founder of one of the four orthodox Islamic schools]; the battlefield of Salah al-Din; the resting place of Husayn ibn 'Ali; and the martyrs' ladder to glory. It is also the invaders' threshold to Jordan, just as Jordan is the conquest [
fath
] gateway to Palestine. Defending Palestine means defending Jordan and vice versa. This is the special relationship which has governed and will continue to govern our Jordanian policy. This is the distinguished policy which the enemy has tried to break up in order to achieve his designs. Some people tried to distort this relationship by giving it attributions it does not possess and that serve the tendency of one wing to dominate another.

This is the relationship within whose framework the first Palestinian conference was held 20 years ago and under whose canopy your council's 17th session is held in Amman today. This special relationship, brothers and sisters, encourages me to speak to you frankly. In order to eliminate any doubts about what I am going to say, I would like to affirm right from the beginning that nothing has been proposed to us in the efforts for a political settlement of the Palestine question. What I will say represents our opinion on the basis of our experience and analysis of the reality, possibilities, and circumstances. I am encouraged in this by the fact that you, too, are experienced people.

I hope that my speech will not be understood to mean that I, God forbid, will interfere in your affairs. The decision is yours. Jordan will not speak on your behalf, although it will remain fully ready to face its fate with you, because our fate is interconnected with yours. If the future seems too dark, as I have said, it is because one of the causes that made it so is that the special relationship binding Jordan with Palestine was eliminated from the Arab and Palestinian action. This has diverted the general effort from its correct course and has expended it in the wrong field.

If matters seem difficult now, it is because of the time we have wasted in differences, disputes, and vituperation. Although we have exerted sincere efforts to rectify matters, the Arab reality prevented us from achieving our aims. We thus enabled the enemy to exploit time in order to change reality on the land of Palestine in its favor. We failed to combine the justice of our cause with our financial and strategic resources in order to curtail the effect of the absolute U.S. support for Israel. We made our regional concerns dominate our pan-Arab responsibilities. All this has led to our present disunity and squandering of our resources.

Brothers and sisters, because we will be harmed the most as a result of the continuation of the present state of affairs, we shoulder the greatest responsibility for rectifying this situation. So far, we have succeeded in foiling attempts to paralyze our role and yours. Experience taught us to renounce immobility, which is no less harmful to your role than the attempts to undermine your legitimacy. Dealing with an issue like the Palestinian issue demands a great amount of flexibility and dynamism that is capable of adapting to circumstances and facing the challenges with the aim of reaching a clear aim—namely, liberating the land and freeing our kinfolk and sacred places. It is stagnation to be satisfied with saying: I want this or nothing. Even adopted positions need revision from time to time and a new look in light of changes and developments.

Dealing with the world necessitates permanent flexibility and dynamism. Let us remember that slogans will not be raised if they become chains which tie those who raise them and prevent them from moving and maneuvering. Principles would not have been embraced had they not been beacons of light to lead the way during work.

Let us be frank with you, brothers, about your sacred cause, which concerns us as much as it concerns you, and the ramifications of which affect us as much as they affect you. In general, the international stand believes that it is possible to regain the occupied territory through a Jordanian-Palestinian formula which gives both sides certain commitments the world considers essential for achieving a just and balanced peaceful settlement. If you are convinced of this option, notwithstanding our bonds as to families as well as the common destiny and common cause that unite us, we are ready to proceed together on this path and to present the world with a joint initiative for which we will rally backing and support.

However, if you believe that the PLO can proceed alone, we will tell you to go ahead, with God's blessing. And we will give you our backing and support. The decision will be first and last yours. And we will respect it, whatever the case. This is because it stems from your esteemed council, which represents the Palestinian people. [applause]

Brothers, if you decide to take the first option—the Jordanian-Palestinian option—then allow me to present to you our idea of how to get out of the present situation and into the arena of effective, rejuvenating action. The existing conditions in the Palestinian, Arab, and international arenas prompt us to adhere to Security Council Resolution 242 as a basis for a just, peaceful settlement. The principle of territory in exchange for peace is our guideline for any initiative we may present to the world. This principle is not a precondition, but the framework through which the negotiations would be held. Therefore, it is not negotiable.

The negotiations which we consider essential within the framework of an international conference for peace would revolve around the ways and means and the adequate guarantees for achieving the principle of territory in exchange for peace. As for the international conference, it shall be held under the supervision of the United Nations with the participation of the permanent member states of the UN Security Council and all the parties to the dispute. The PLO shall attend it on an equal basis with the other parties, because it is the party authorized to speak about the most serious and important dimension in the Middle East crisis—namely, the Palestinian dimension.

As for the question of regulating the Jordanian-Palestinian relationship, it is the primary responsibility of the Jordanian and Palestinian peoples. No one has the right to determine this relationship on their behalf or to interfere in it, be he enemy, brother, or friend. This is because this would be a detraction from Jordan's sovereignty and open interference in the Palestinian people's right to determine their own destiny. Furthermore, involving this issue in the efforts to regain the territory would enable the enemy to obstruct any serious effort to save this territory from the existing occupation and gradual annexation.

In our opinion, these general outlines can form the overall framework for a Jordanian-Palestinian initiative which we can present to the Arabs so that they can support it under the Fez summit resolutions. Then, we and our Arab brothers would present it to the world, giving it all our support. This would continue until the circle of support for this initiative expands to include the entire influential world. This is our own idea. We do not oblige you to accept it, and we do not impose it on you. The decision is yours, and the responsibility is yours. We are only presenting it to you for the viewpoint of our participation with you in the two states of security and danger, and benefit and harm. We are ready to do anything for the sake of your cause—which is our cause—except concluding a unilateral peace. . . .

Emanating from the spirit of the Fez summit resolution, approved by Arab states, and from United Nations resolutions relating to the Palestinian question,

In Accordance with international legitimacy, and

Deriving from a common understanding on the establishment of a special relations between the Jordan and Palestinian peoples,

The Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the Palestine Liberation Organization have agreed to move together toward the achievement of a peaceful and just settlement of the Middle East crisis and the termination of Israeli occupation of the Occupied Arab Territories, including Jerusalem, on the basis of the following principles:

In the past few days, Amman has been the center of attention for much of the world, drawing media people and journalists from all quarters. News coming out of Amman was reported on the front pages of world newspapers and occupied a prominent place in agency reports and news bulletins. But the content of these reports reflected mere speculation or expectations on the possible outcome of discussions held with us and with leading officials of our government by the Palestinian leadership while in Amman. Amman, along with concerned world circles, went through a period of expectation, but we preferred not to issue any declarations or communiqués until matters under intensive discussion, whether between us and the Palestinian leadership or among its own members, became clearer.

Now that a measure of clarity has become apparent, I consider it my duty as well as my responsibility towards you, being in the thick of events and in the eye of the hurricane, to appraise you of the most recent phase of political endeavor with regard to our foremost cause: Palestine, its land, its holy places, its people, and their identity. . . .

For a variety of reasons, there is a need for a thorough airing of this question. The shared destiny of Jordan and Palestine requires it. So does the time factor, in view of the fact that the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights have been occupied for close to 19 years. The situation is further aggravated by prolonged failure to find a solution by the growing threat to the Palestinians' true identity resulting from the gradual displacement of the Palestinian people. One also has to consider ramifications with regard to Jordan, the region, and the world. In the final analysis, a people without its land is nothing more than a disjointed community.

Identity without a homeland is but a reservoir of sad memories. Our aim should be the land itself. Now, as at the turn of the century, the Palestinian cause is inseparable from the Palestinian land, which today is the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. This being the case, the Palestinian people, steadfast on Palestinian territory, are our primary concern. For a different reason, they are also the primary concern of the enemy. They are the major obstacle to the advancement of expansionist Zionist programs. Their legitimate resistance poses an overt challenge to claims by Israel and its friends and supporters, be they states or communities, that Israel is a free and democratic society, and places it as an open test within the sight and hearing of the world.

Brothers and sisters, if most of us have so far failed to grasp these rudimentary facts, the enemy has not. It is on the basis of these facts that Israel's aims and policies were formulated from the very beginning: to occupy the land of Palestine and expand the territory of Israel. The Israeli leadership's motives were two-fold. Expanding Israeli territory, through occupation of Palestinian and other neighboring Arab lands, would fulfill one of Zionism's cherished aims while at the same time achieving, from their point of view, a security need arising more from psychological considerations than from those of space, distance, and topography, which Israel attempts to highlight whenever the security issue is raised. . . .

While it is true that Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt share a geographical contiguity with Israel, Jordan is the prime target of Israel's step-by-step policy. Thus, the distinctive relationship between Jordan and Palestine is not a question we take lightly. We bring it up in order to draw attention to objective facts and conditions which the enemy attempts to exploit for the purpose of implementing its expansionist policy at the expense of the Jordanian and Palestinian peoples. The common links between the two peoples are not only a matter of shared history, experience, culture, economy, and social structure, but also a question of destiny. They represent a confluence of interest as well as of harm. . . .

The Palestinian people in the occupied territories are weak without the PLO. By the same token, the Palestinian people and the PLO, which represents its aspirations, hopes and interests, are weaker without Jordan, and all three are weaker without the Arab nation as a whole. This has been our vision in all our endeavors. The components are as clear as the sun; and the position we occupy vis-à-vis the Palestinian issue on the one hand, and the Arab world on the other, provides us with no alternative vision. In Jordan we stand in two circles at once: one representing the Palestine tragedy and the other residing in national commitment. This has dictated our position on direct confrontation with Israel on military and political levels.