44 No. 75 JUSTICE 8. Jordan’s claims to the West Bank and its renunciation thereof Following the conclusion of the Armistice Agreement, in 1950 Jordan purported to annex the West Bank.181 West Bank residents were granted Jordanian citizenship and given the right to vote, and were represented in the Parliament in Amman.182 This action, however, was met with widespread international opposition and was recognized by only two countries: the United Kingdom and Pakistan.183 In particular, on 15 May 1950, the Arab League agreed that Jordan’s purported annexation of the West Bank that year was illegal.184 Israel, for its part, maintained its claim to the territory. In asserting that it did not consider itself bound by the Jordanian Parliament’s unilaterally proclaimed annexation, Israel stressed that the status of the West Bank could be resolved only via peace negotiations leading to a political settlement: “This is a unilateral act that is in no way binding on Israel. We have concluded an armistice agreement with the Hashemite Jordan Kingdom and it is our firm intention fully to abide by it. This agreement, however, entails no final political settlement, and no such final settlement is possible without negotiations and the conclusion of a peace treaty between the two parties. It should therefore be clear that the status of the Arab areas west of the Jordan [River] remains an open question as far as Israel is concerned.”185 Jordan’s purported annexation failed to confer Jordanian sovereignty over the West Bank.186 In any event, in 1988, King Hussein of Jordan formally relinquished Jordan’s claims to the West Bank in favor of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).187 This renunciation was formalized in the Algiers Declaration, effectively ending any purported Jordanian claim to the area.188 181. See, e.g., SABEL, supra note 21, at 299-300. 182. See, e.g., Michael Sharnoff, Does Jordan Want the West Bank? 27(4) Middle East Q. 1, 2 (2020). 183. Id.; Eugene V. Rostow, Palestinian Self-Determination: Possible Futures for the Unallocated Territories of the Palestine Mandate, 5 Yale Stud. World Pub. Ord. 147, 153 (1979); ALLAN GERSON, ISRAEL, THE WEST BANK AND INTERNATIONAL LAW 42-47, 76-78 (Routledge, 1978). 184. Jordan’s Annexation in Palestine is Called Illegal by Arab League, N.Y. TIMES, May 16, 1950, https://www.nytimes. com/1950/05/16/archives/jordans-annexation-in-palestine-is-called-illegal-by-arab-league.html. In contrast, the Palestinians did not take any steps towards the creation of a Palestinian state in the Jordanian territory, and themselves later ascribed to Jordanian sovereignty over the West Bank. In fact, it is explicitly stated in the 1964 Palestinian National Charter of the Palestinian Liberation Organization that “This Organization does not exercise any regional sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, [or] the Gaza Strip.” (National Covenant of the Palestine Liberation Organization art. 24, 1964 https://www.gov.il/en/Departments/General/11-national-covenantof-the-palestine-liberation-organization-28-may-1964). 185. See statement by Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett in DK, 1st Knesset, Session No. 135 (1950) 1282 (Isr.), https:// fs.knesset.gov.il//1/Plenum/1_ptm_250228.pdf. 186. See, e.g. Yehuda Z. Blum, The Missing Reversioner: Reflections on the Status of Judea and Samaria, 3 ISR. L. REV 279, 292 (1968) (“[T]he Kingdom of Jordan never acquired the status of a legitimate sovereign over Judea and Samaria and enjoyed at the most the rights of a belligerent occupant there …”). 187. Address to the Nation, Office of King Hussein I, Amman (July 31, 1988), http://www.kinghussein.gov.jo/88_july31. html (last visited Jan. 24, 2024); see also Sharnoff, supra note 46. 188. Written Statement of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, 2004 I.C.J ¶ 2.41 (Jan. 30), https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/caserelated/131/1559.pdf.
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