Israel–Jordan border

The treaty line

Israel and Jordan fought in 1948 and in 1967, when Jordan lost East Jerusalem and the West Bank.^[3] Their 1994 peace treaty drew the boundary with reference to the line under the British Mandate and declared it permanent and recognised, but without prejudice to the status of the territories that came under Israeli military government in 1967.^[1]

It runs down the middle of the main flow of the Yarmouk and Jordan rivers, shifting with natural changes in their course, then through the Dead Sea and its salt pans, and along Wadi Araba, where pillars joined by straight lines mark it, to the Gulf of Aqaba. Along the West Bank, maps must show the line differently, as an administrative boundary only.^[2]

“This line is the administrative boundary between Jordan and the territory which came under Israeli military government control in 1967.”^[2]

Baqoura and Ghumar

Israel had taken al-Baqoura in the north in 1948 and al-Ghumar in the south after the 1967 war.^[3] The treaty recognised both as Jordanian, but set up temporary special regimes for Israeli land users. The one at Naharayim ran for 25 years, renewable automatically unless either side gave a year’s notice, and let Israeli landowners and their workers cross from Israel without Jordanian customs or immigration checks.^[2]

In 2018, amid public pressure, King Abdullah II gave notice, and on 10 November 2019 Jordan took back both areas. Al Jazeera reported little support for the treaty among most Jordanians; a former royal adviser said Jordan had been too “lenient” in 1994.^[3]