Jordan must not sway to Israeli intimidation

The kingdom has every right to terminate the leases of two areas lent to Israel under 1994 peace deal

Within the coming days, Israel’s propaganda arm will be working overtime, churning out statements of vitriolic rhetoric, with the Kingdom of Jordan the target of its spleen. And Israeli diplomats will be doing their utmost to tarnish the international reputation of the kingdom in the coming days, claiming — as always — that a great wrong has been committed once more against that hateful and spiteful nation that cares not one scintilla about what the international community makes of its illegal, immoral and repugnant actions down the years.

The cause will be the fact that Jordan’s King Abdullah II has said that his nation will not renew parts of its landmark peace treaty with the Israeli regime. Already, an Israeli minister has said that the right-ring government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will cut off water supplies to the kingdom — surely an act of aggression and deliberate hatred if ever another example was needed of Israel’s callousness. In a statement on Sunday, King Abdullah said he would be pulling out of two annexes of the 1994 agreement, clauses that temporarily allowed Israel to lease two small areas, Al Baqoura and Al Ghumr, from the Jordanians for 25 years. Under the terms of the treaty, Jordan has the right to give notice — and that notice period ends Thursday — to end the temporary arrangement. It has formally given such notice, which explains Israel’s visceral reaction to Jordan’s explicit and agreed right to act and exercise its rights and proactively flex its national sovereignty. Naturally, the attitude in the occupation administration that only Israel has any such rights, and all else, be it Palestinians, Arabs from 1948 areas, or anyone else in the region, must live with those actions.

The truth is that Jordan is well within its rights to give notice of the termination of those leases, and for the past quarter century the leaseholders there have enjoyed the benefits of farming and living off land that is expressly Jordanian. Certainly, the threat from Israel to turn off water represents a serious act of intimidation, one that undermines the peace between neighbours and rips up the very terms of that 1994 peace agreement.

There are numerous examples through history of nations exercising their sovereign rights and giving notice that lease holdings of territory can come to an end. One need look no further than the handovers of Macau and Hong Kong as legitimate examples of how such transactions have been accommodated and accomplished. The difference this time, however, is that Israel has never been one to play by international rules and is solely interested in exercising its sanctimonious belief in its illegal sovereignty. Jordan should not sway to Israeli intimidation.