The Transjordan memorandum was a British memorandum passed by the Council of the League of Nations on 16 September 1922, as an addendum to the Mandate for Palestine. [1]
The memorandum described how the British government planned to implement Article 25 of the Mandate, which had been drafted during the March 1921 Cairo Conference to include Transjordan in the Mandate without applying the provisions regarding Jewish settlement. [2]
In the aftermath of WWI, the Levant was divided by the British and French into three military regions known as OETA North, South and East. [3] OETA South roughly comprised what became Mandatory Palestine, with eastern boundary at the Jordan River, while OETA East included a major portion of Transjordan. [3] Local councils were established in Transjordan under British guidance in early 1920, but Transjordan had no unified administration until the arrival in November 1920 of Abdullah bin al-Hussein, who was appointed Emir of Transjordan in 1921. [3] [4]
Meanwhile, the San Remo conference had awarded Great Britain the mandate for Palestine without defining its boundaries. [3] This presented the British with the problem of how to maintain a controlling influence over Transjordan without including it in the "Jewish homeland", while at the same time being seen to keep promises made to the Arabs. [3] The solution adopted was to include Transjordan within the scope of the mandate for Palestine while preserving its autonomous political entity. [3] [5] This led to Article 25 of the Mandate document and the 1922 memorandum which detailed its implementation.
Article 25 of the Mandate for Palestine allowed for the exclusion of Transjordan from unspecified provisions of the Mandate. On 16 September 1922, Lord Balfour, representing the United Kingdom, reminded the Council of the League of Nations of Article 25 (which had been previously approved but had not yet come into effect). He then told the council that the British government now proposed to carry out this article, as had always been intended by the League of Nations and the British government. He then presented a memorandum for approval. [6]
The Palestine Order in Council of August 1922 gave the High Commissioner authority to define the boundary between the territories of Transjordan and Palestine. [7] The resulting definition was copied verbatim into the September memorandum: [7] [8]
all territory lying to the east of a line drawn from a point two miles west of the town of Akaba on the Gulf of that name up the centre of the Wady Araba, Dead Sea and River Jordan to its junction with the River Yarmuk: thence up the centre of that river to the Syrian frontier.
The memorandum listed as exclusions articles 4, 6, 13, 14, 22, 23, and parts of the Preamble and Articles 2, 7 and 11, including the articles of the Mandate concerning a Jewish national home. It concluded with: [2]
In the application of the Mandate to Transjordan, the action which, in Palestine, is taken by the Administration of the latter country will be taken by the Administration of Transjordan under the general supervision of the Mandatory. His Majesty's Government accept full responsibility as Mandatory for Transjordan, and undertake that such provision as may be made for the administration of that territory in accordance with Article 25 of the Mandate shall be in no way inconsistent with those provisions of the Mandate which are not by this resolution declared inapplicable.
From that point onwards, Britain administered the part west of the Jordan as Palestine, and the part east of the Jordan as Transjordan. [9] Technically they remained one mandate covering 2 territories but most official documents nonetheless referred to them as if they were two separate mandates. In May 1923 Transjordan was granted internal self-government with Abdullah as ruler and Harry St. John Philby as chief representative. [10]
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The 1921 Cairo Conference, described in the official minutes as Middle East Conference held in Cairo and Jerusalem, March 12 to 30, 1921, was a series of meetings by British officials for examining and discussing Middle Eastern problems, and to frame a common policy. The secret conference of British experts created the blueprint for British control in both Iraq and Transjordan. By offering nominal leadership of those two regions to the sons of the Sharif of the Mecca, Churchill felt that the spirit if not the actual letter of Britain's wartime promises to the Arabs were fulfilled.
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The history of Jews in Jordan can be traced back to Biblical times. Presently, there are no legal restrictions on Jews in Jordan, and they are permitted to own property and conduct business in the country, but in 2006 there were reported to be no Jewish citizens of Jordan, nor any synagogues or other Jewish institutions.
This is a timeline of major events in the history of the modern state of Jordan.
The Mandate for Palestine was a League of Nations mandate for British administration of the territories of Palestine and Transjordan, both of which had been conceded by the Ottoman Empire following the end of World War I in 1918. The mandate was assigned to Britain by the San Remo conference in April 1920, after France's concession in the 1918 Clemenceau–Lloyd George Agreement of the previously agreed "international administration" of Palestine under the Sykes–Picot Agreement. Transjordan was added to the mandate after the Arab Kingdom in Damascus was toppled by the French in the Franco-Syrian War. Civil administration began in Palestine and Transjordan in July 1920 and April 1921, respectively, and the mandate was in force from 29 September 1923 to 15 May 1948 and to 25 May 1946 respectively.
The Occupied Enemy Territory Administration (OETA) was a joint British, French and Arab military administration over Levantine provinces of the former Ottoman Empire between 1917 and 1920, set up on 23 October 1917 following the Sinai and Palestine Campaign and Arab Revolt of World War I. Although it was declared by the British military, who were in control of the region, it was followed on 30 September 1918 by the 1918 Anglo-French Modus Vivendi in which it was agreed that the British would give the French control in certain areas, and the Hashemites were given joint control of the Eastern area per T.E. Lawrence's November 1918 "Sharifian plan".
Mandatory Palestine was a geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the region of Palestine under the terms of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine.
The All-Palestine Government was established on 22 September 1948, during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, to govern the Egyptian-controlled territory in Gaza, which Egypt had on the same day declared as the All-Palestine Protectorate. It was confirmed by the Arab League and recognised by six of the then seven Arab League members, with Transjordan being the exception. Though it claimed jurisdiction over the whole of the former Mandatory Palestine, its effective jurisdiction was limited to the All-Palestine Protectorate, which came to be called the Gaza Strip. The President of the protectorate was Hajj Amin al-Husseini, former chairman of the Arab Higher Committee, and the Prime Minister was Ahmed Hilmi Pasha. The legislative body was the All-Palestine National Council.
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