Under the Ottoman Empire The Jordan valley was under control of the
Ottoman Empire from their victory over the
Mamluks in 1486, which involved a small battle in the valley en route to
Khan Yunis and
Egypt, until 1918. The Ottoman internal administrative divisions varied throughout the period with the Jordan river being at times a provincial border, and at times not. However the valley was contained within the group of provinces termed
Ottoman Syria.
Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem during some periods contained both banks of the Jordan, while during others the valley was bordered by
Syria Vilayet and
Beirut Vilayet. According to the
PEF Survey of Western Palestine, the people who lived in the Jordan Valley in the late 19th century were almost entirely
Arabs of various tribes, save for a group of
Armenian hermits on the
Mount of Temptation and a group of
Greek monks at
Mar Saba. The explorers added that
fellahin from the hills come to cultivate their land for them.
World War I In 1916, Britain and France engaged in the
Sykes–Picot Agreement in which the Ottoman territory of the Levant, which divided the yet undefeated Ottoman regions of the Levant between France and Britain. Under the agreement, the Jordan valley would be entirely within the British sphere of control. In February 1918, as part of the wider
Sinai and Palestine Campaign the British empire's
Egyptian Expeditionary Force captured Jericho. Subsequently, during the
British occupation of the Jordan Valley the
Desert Mounted Corps were placed in the valley to protect the eastern flank of the British forces facing Ottoman forces in the hills of
Moab. This position provided a strong position from which to launch the
Battle of Megiddo which lead to the capture of
Amman,
Damascus, and the collapse of the Ottoman armies in the Levant.
Formation of Transjordan and Palestine &
Emirate of Transjordan Following conflicting promises and agreements during WWI, in particular
McMahon–Hussein Correspondence and
Balfour Declaration, as well as a power vacuum following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire led to a series of diplomatic conferences and treaties (
Treaty of Sèvres,
San Remo conference,
Paulet–Newcombe Agreement) which convened with continued armed struggle between the great powers, their proxies, and Arab elements that were part of the
Arab Revolt. Following the
Battle of Maysalun the
Transjordan area east of the valley become a
no man's land and the British, who directly controlled the area west of the valley, chose to avoid any definite connection between the two areas. Following the
Cairo Conference (1921) and meetings with
Abdullah bin Hussein it was agreed that he would administer the territory east of the Jordan River,
Emirate of Transjordan. The area west of the Jordan river was allocated in 1922 to the
Mandatory Palestine under British Administration. The Jordan river, in the middle of the Jordan valley, was the border between these two entities. This agreement split the Jordan valley, which during Ottoman times was under a single administration, to two distinct entities. Following the division, the concept of an east and west bank of the Jordan, as separate territorial units took hold. As a political example to this new reality, in 1929
Ze'ev Jabotinsky composed the political poem
Two Banks to the Jordan which asserts that the Jordan river should be the central feature of
Greater Israel, with the repeating
refrain: "Two Banks has the Jordan/This is ours and, that is as well."
Naharayim power plant in 1926
Pinhas Rutenberg was granted a 70-year concession for the construction of hydroelectric plants along the Jordan River; the only plant built was the
First Jordan Hydro-Electric Power House in the Jordan valley at the confluence of the
Yarmouk River with the
Jordan River near
Naharayim. The Naharayim plant was a major source of
electricity to the British Mandate and the Emirate of Transjordan. An adjacent company town,
Tel Or, was founded in the vicinity of the power plant. The plant remained in operation until the war of 1948.
1948 Arab–Israeli War Under the 1947
United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine the northern portion of the western side of the valley would have been assigned to the Jewish state, and the southern portion to an Arab state. However hostilities between the Arabs and Jews commenced soon after the UN resolution as
1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine. The Jewish settlements in the Jordan valley were particularly disconnected from the rest of the Jewish
Yishuv, were fairly small and dispersed among Arab settlements, and relied on a tenuous supply line via
Nazareth. In March 1948
Haganah forces captured
Samakh, Tiberias, located at the northern edge of the valley, the inhabitants fleeing to
Nazareth. The Arab population of Tiberias (6,000 residents or 47.5% of the population) was evacuated under British military protection on 18 April 1948 following clashes in the mixed city. The
Battle of Mishmar HaEmek in April 1948 a strategic settlement located on the route to the valley was successfully defended by Jewish forces, and Arab positions surrounding it were captured in a counter-attack. The Jewish supply route to the Jordan Valley and
Galilee Panhandle was further secured by the Battle of Ramat Yohanan and a modus vivendi agreed with
Druze in the
Galilee. Subsequently,
Operation Yiftach further opened up supply lines via
Safed. In the lead up to the full
1948 Arab–Israeli War, Naharayim, Tel-Or, and
Gesher were shelled on 27–29 April 1948 by the
Arab Legion. The power plant workers and their families without a Jordanian ID card evacuated into Mandatory Palestine. On 15 May 1948, the day hostilities formally commenced with Arab states, an
Iraqi brigade invaded via Naharyim in an unsuccessful attempt to take Gesher. After the Tel Or village and the power plant were overrun by the Arab forces they were destroyed. To prevent Iraqi tanks from attacking Jewish villages in the Jordan Valley, the sluice gates of the Degania dam were opened. The rush of water, which deepened the Jordan river, was instrumental in blocking the Iraqi-Jordanian incursion. On 20 May 1948, after a failure to reach an agreement with
Transjordan's King
Abdullah, the southern Jordan valley
Beit HaArava and the nearby north Dead sea
Kalia were abandoned due to their isolation amidst Arab settlements. The residents and fighters of the villages evacuated via boat over the Dead Sea to the Israeli post at
Sodom. Concurrently, on 14 May Syrian forces began attacking via the Syrian-Mandate border in a series of engagement called
Battles of the Kinarot Valley. The Syrians thrust down the eastern and southern
Sea of Galilee shores, and attacked
Samakh the neighboring
Tegart fort and the settlements of
Sha'ar HaGolan,
Ein Gev, but they were bogged down by resistance. Later, they attacked
Samakh using tanks and aircraft, and on 18 May they succeeded in conquering
Samakh and occupied the abandoned
Sha'ar HaGolan. Following the Syrian forces' defeat at the
Deganias a few days later, they abandoned the
Samakh village. Following the heavy fighting, the Arab inhabitants of the city of
Beit She'an in the northern valley
fled across the Jordan River. Following the first truce which ended on 8 July, the successful Israeli
Operation Dekel captured by the time a second truce took effect at 19:00 18 July, the whole Lower Galilee from Haifa Bay to the
Sea of Galilee was captured by Israel opening further supply lines to the settlements in the northern Jordan valley. Throughout the entire war, Jordanian Arab Legion forces as well as Iraqi military forces crossed the Jordan valley to support the Arab effort in the central sector, the current West Bank. From the beginning of the second truce on 18 July 1948 and until the end of hostilities with Jordan on 3 April 1949 and Syria on 20 July 1949 there were no further major military operations around the Jordan Valley, and contact lines remained static in this area. Unlike other areas, at the end of hostilities Israel controlled roughly the same territory of the Jordan Valley that it was allotted in the partition plan. Some Jewish settlements in the Jordanian controlled Jordan Valley were abandoned, while significantly more Arab residents fled mixed cities and Arab settlements as part of the
1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight. In the aftermath of the war, a Palestinian Arab state was not formed in the West Bank, and the Jordanians retained control of both sides of the Jordan Valley along the West Bank – Jordan border due to the
Jordanian rule of the West Bank.
Water wars 1953–1967 The
Jordan Valley Unified Water Plan, commonly known as the "
Johnston Plan", was a plan for the unified
water resource development of the Jordan Valley. It was negotiated and developed by US ambassador
Eric Johnston between 1953 and 1955, and based on an earlier plan commissioned by
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Modeled upon the
Tennessee Valley Authority's
engineered development plan, it was approved by technical water committees of all the regional
riparian countries—Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Though the plan was rejected by the Arab League, both Israel and Jordan undertook to abide by their allocations under the plan. The US provided funding for Israel's
National Water Carrier after receiving assurances from Israel that it would continue to abide by the plan's allocations. Similar funding was provided for Jordan's
East Ghor Main Canal project after similar assurances were obtained from Jordan. The Israeli
National Water Carrier of Israel was completed in 1964, and coupled with increased closing of
Degania Dam, greatly decreased the flow of water from the Sea of Galilee down to Jordan Valley. The Jordanian
East Ghor Main Canal was completed in stages between 1961 and 1966, and likewise diverts a significant amount of water from the Jordan river. While providing benefits elsewhere by utilization of fresh water, the combined result of both of these projects and subsequent management and usage, was to greatly reduce the flow of water through the Jordan valley. The flow rate of the Jordan River once was 1.3 billion cubic meters per year; as of 2010, just 20 to 30 million cubic metres per year flow into the Dead Sea. The
Arab League which objected to Israeli National Water Carrier approved in 1964 the
Headwater Diversion Plan (Jordan River) which would have diverted two of the three sources of the Jordan river. Israel's destruction, via airstrikes, of the diversion project in April 1967 was one of the events leading to the
Six-Day War.
Six-Day War , 5–7 June Following commencement of hostilities of the Six-Day War on 5 June 1967, initial hostilities between Israel and Jordan were mainly around the line of contact between Israel and Jordan and around
Jerusalem in particular. Following heavy fighting in Jerusalem, the city was captured on 7 June. The Israeli Harel Brigade advanced on the Jordan Valley and Israeli
sappers blew up sections of the
Allenby Bridge and
King Abdullah Bridge in the south of the valley, and forces
36th Division blew up
Damia Bridge located in the middle of the valley. As it became clear that the Jordanian position, from the get-go a
salient with limited supply routes from the other side of the Jordan river, was collapsing due to lack of suitable supply and reinforcement routes most of the remaining Jordanian units able to retreat did so, crossing the Jordan river to Jordan proper and the remaining West Bank cities were captured with little resistance by the Israelis. These retreating units, as well as two brigades that were held in reserve in the Jordan Valley, formed defensive positions on the Jordanian side of the Jordan valley and deeper in Jordanian territory. The Jordanian valley features, namely the river and the high and steep escarpments contributed to the strength of this position. Coupled with Israeli reluctance to cross the 1948 British Mandate border in this sector, American diplomatic pressure, and needs on additional fronts the war ended with the sides opposing one another across the Jordan Valley.
1967 Palestinian exodus During and following the Six-Day War, many Palestinians, who at the time had Jordanian citizenship, fled the West Bank to Jordan due to choice, fear, and in some cases being forced to do so. In the Jordan valley the majority of the inhabitants of
Aqabat Jaber (30,000) and
Ein as-Sultan (20,000)
refugee camps fled. In
al-Jiftlik over 800 homes were razed by the
Israeli army and its 6,000 inhabitants were ordered to leave; most, however, returned to the village. The population of the Jordan Valley fled in disproportionate numbers compared to the rest of the West Bank. According to some estimates, the population of the Jericho sub-district which is in the Jordan Valley area decreased from around 79,407 in May 1967 to 10,800 in the September 1967 census or 83% compared to an estimate of 850,343 to 661,757 or 23% for the entire West Bank.
Jordan: conflict with PLO and Black September 1967–1971 The proportion of
Palestinians in Jordan of the total Jordanian was always high, and the 1967 refugees further increased their number. After the Six-Day War in 1967, the
PLO and
Fatah stepped up their guerrilla attacks against Israel from Jordanian soil, using the Jordan Valley town of
Karameh as their headquarters. The Israeli army attacked this base in March 1968 in the
Battle of Karameh which ended in the destruction of the PLO base, deaths on both sides, destruction of property, and an Israeli withdrawal. In Palestinian enclaves and refugee camps in Jordan, the Jordanian Police and army were losing their authority. Uniformed PLO militants openly carried weapons, set up checkpoints, and attempted to extort "taxes". During the November 1968 negotiations, a
seven-point agreement was reached between King Hussein and Palestinian organizations. This agreement, however, was not adhered to, and clashes grew between the Jordanian army and Palestinian militants. In February 1970 fighting broke out in
Amman resulting in approximately 300 deaths. Between February and June 1970, about a thousand people died in Jordan due to the conflict. In September 1970; following failed assassination attempts of the king, and the
Dawson's Field hijackings in which 4 planes were hijacked and landed at a desert airstrip in Jordan; the Jordanian king ordered the army to attack and expel Palestinian militants, and declared
martial law. Syria attempted to aid the Palestinian cause in Jordan by sending significant military forces across the border, though nominally under the
Palestine Liberation Army command, which were repulsed after some initial successes as a result of Jordanian air force strikes. After a protracted campaign, lasting 10 months, and claiming more than 3,400 Palestinian deaths the king reasserted Jordanian sovereignty.
Yasser Arafat and remaining fighters fled to
Southern Lebanon. The effect of Black September on the Jordanian Jordan Valley population was severe as the valley had a relatively high fraction of Palestinian population and PLO bases and fighters. According to some estimates, half the buildings in the Jordanian side of the Jordan Valley were razed and the population decreased from 63,000 to 5,000.
1973 Yom Kippur War Even though Jordan was Western aligned, and was invaded by Syrian forces just three years prior, the Jordanian government decided to intervene in the 1973 conflict a week after the beginning of hostilities, sending an
armoured division as an
Expeditionary Force to southern Syria to aid in the defense of
Damascus. However, declassified documents show this was a token participation to preserve King Hussein's status in the Arab world, and that some tacit understandings were made with Israel. The Israeli-Jordanian contact line, the main portion being the Jordanian valley, remained quiet during the war. Israel and Jordan did however deploy units in a defensive posture on each side of the Jordan valley.
Post-1967 Israeli settlements and long-term views of the Jordan Valley Since the end of the 1967 war, many Israeli governments have treated the western Jordan Valley as the
eastern border of Israel with Jordan, intending to annex it or keep deployment of Israeli forces in the valley. An early example of this view was the
Allon Plan formulated in 1967–1968. This Israeli position (which has also been held by the
Yitzhak Rabin government that signed the
Oslo Accords) stems from the narrowness of the
Israeli coastal plain, the geographic defensive barrier created by the Jordan valley, and the demographic realities (lack of a significant Arab population in the valley that would impact the overall demographics of Israel). Israel has constructed settlements in the West bank portion of the Jordan valley in three main phases: • 1967–1970: construction of five settlements along
highway 90 which runs through the valley. • 1971–1974: construction of six settlements to the west of the road. • 1975–1999: construction of 18 additional settlements, which further reinforces the two settlement lines in the previous phases. Two of the settlements,
Kalya and
Beit HaArava, were reestablished on the sites of settlements that were evacuated in the beginning of the 1948 war. Concurrently, as it has done
elsewhere, Israel has sought to settle migrant
Bedouin pastoral communities, who roamed the arid plateau above the valley without regard to land ownership, into permanent communities particularly around the Jericho area. Israel has also enforced zoning rules, building permit requirements, natural reserves, and military firing zones in the territory which has restricted Arab development. The casino closed subsequently during the
Second Intifada.
1994 Israeli-Jordanian peace agreement In 1994, following the initial Oslo accords, Israel and Jordan signed a
peace treaty. The agreement made minor land adjustments, in relation to existing
ceasefire lines, to reflect both the shifting river course and historical claims, and also settled on-going water disputed and instituted a water sharing agreement. The treaty defines the international border between the countries on the Jordan and
Yarmouk Rivers in the center of those two river courses. In regard to the West Bank, Annex I (a) provides that "This line is the administrative boundary between Jordan and the territory which came under Israeli military government control in 1967. Any treatment of this line shall be without prejudice to the status of the territory."
1997 Island of Peace massacre The site of the former
Naharayim power plant was dubbed
Island of Peace, with Israeli private land ownership and property rights, but Jordanian sovereignty. On 16 March 1997, a few days after the attack,
King Hussein of Jordan personally apologized for the incident, traveling to Israel to visit and pay respects to the grieving families of the seven murdered girls during the traditional Jewish mourning ceremony known as
shiva. King Hussein's visit to the parents of the victims was broadcast live in Israel and Jordan. During the visit, in which King Hussein stood alongside
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he expressed an apology on behalf of the
Kingdom of Jordan telling the parents: "a crime that is a shame for all of us. I feel as if I have lost a child of my own. If there is any purpose in life it will be to make sure that all the children no longer suffer the way our generation did." The perpetrator, however, was diagnosed with
antisocial personality disorder by a Jordanian medical team. Therefore, a five-member military tribunal sentenced him to only 20 years in prison. Daqamseh expressed pride for his actions, and he was later called a "hero" by Jordanian politician
Hussein Mjalli. A petition circulated in the
Jordanian parliament in 2013 in which MPs alleged that he had finished his sentence. He was released on 12 March 2017 after he finished his sentence.
2000–2006 Second Intifada Despite some clashes in the Jericho area during the
Second Intifada, it was not a major area of operations by either side. The Jericho casino was shut shortly after the beginning of the Intifada, and has not since returned to business. On 14 March 2006, Israel raided the Palestinian jail in Jericho as part of
Operation Bringing Home the Goods to capture the
killers of Israeli minister Rehavam Ze'evi who were jailed there, following the announcement of the
Hamas elected government that the prisoners would be released and the leaving of international wardens who were monitoring the incarceration. The prisoners put up a fight, and after a ten-hour siege, the prisoners surrendered and were arrested. A series of riots and kidnapping of foreigners ensued throughout the
Palestinian territories. Reports from the scene said 50 jeeps, three tanks, and an armored bulldozer pushed into Jericho, and two helicopters were flying overhead.
Future of the West Bank portion of the Jordan Valley Following the end of the Second Intifada, the Palestinian government has attempted to gain control over additional areas and in particular the
area C section of the Jordan valley and the north Dead Sea. The long-standing Palestinian view is and has been that the entire West Bank, including the Jordan Valley, should be Palestinian. Israeli enforcement of zoning rules, building permits, natural reserves, and firing zones in the Jordan valley, the adjoining area east of
Jerusalem, the south Hebron hills and elsewhere, have become an issue covered by activists and human-rights organizations.
B'Tselem sees the actions by the Israeli government as a part of a policy aimed at de facto annexing the Jordan Valley. The Bedouin, who erect structures illegally per the Israeli view, have received material aid from the
Red Cross, the
European Union, and the
UN OCHA. Some settler groups have claimed that the EU's ambassador is working to "establish a terror state", with housing aid to Bedouin along strategic routes. On 10 September 2019, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said that the government would
annex the Jordan Valley by applying "Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and northern
Dead Sea" should he continue being Prime Minister after the
September 2019 Israeli legislative election. In late March 2024, Israel's far-right Finance Minister
Bezalel Smotrich declared that the Israeli government had newly seized 10 km2 of land in the West Bank; this included parts of the Jordan Valley, as well as land between the Israeli settlements
Ma'ale Adumim and
Kedar. == The Israeli Jordan Valley Regional Council ==