Dr. Mordechai Kedar..
jewishpress.com..
07 March '12..
Since its establishment, the Kingdom of Jordan has suffered from a split personality between two identities, the Jordanian and the Palestinian, that are intertwined like a pair of Siamese twins who hate one another, but cannot part from each other. The source of the problem is the fact that most of the citizens of the Hashemite Jordanian monarchy define themselves as “Palestinians”, but their state is “Jordanian”. So how should they relate to it – as their country or as a foreign interloper?
The core of the problem hinges on the fact that the Kingdom of Jordan is not an entity with historic roots, but rather a modern creation of British colonialism, which succeeded the Ottoman Empire at the conclusion of the First World War. Back then its name was “The Transjordan Emirates” because the British did not have a better, more unique name for it. Jordan is part of the “Sham”, the area that today includes Jordan, Israel, Syria and Lebanon. Until the era of the British Mandate, Jordan was never a state or a distinct country, like – for example – Egypt, and did not have its own local leadership. The British appointed Abdullah, the son of Sharif Hussein, to be responsible for the Transjordan Emirates, despite the fact that the people of the area didn’t see him as a natural leader, or one of their own, as he was born hundreds of kilometers south of Jordan. This fact is the reason that the regime in Jordan is seen as an illegitimate regime by many in Jordan today.
Jordan is culturally divided into two parts: Bedouin on one hand, and farmers and city folk on the other. In the days of the British Mandate, before the establishment of the Emirates, everyone was “Palestinian” because everyone was a resident of the British Mandate for Palestine – the Land of Israel. After the founding of the Emirates, Abdullah, the son of Sharif Hussein from Mecca, was accepted as a legitimate leader mainly by the Bedouin, who formed the locus of those who were faithful to him, however the residents of the villages and cities felt that he was a foreigner whom the British brought in and paid off with a job. Therefore, the Bedouin adopted the identity of the Emirates, and subsequently, starting in the year 1946, assumed identity as subjects of the monarchy; while the residents of the villages and cities continued to call themselves “Palestinians” just as they had during the period of the Mandate. Some of them had family connections with the residents West of the Jordan, and therefore it was easier for them to adopt the Palestinian self-definition, which they preferred over that of “Jordanian”.
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