The Impact of the Palestinian Refugee Crisis on the Development of Amman, 1947 -1958 (original) (raw)

Abstract

Amman has been relatively underexplored in the literature on Middle Eastern cities. Using a broad range of primary and secondary sources, this article addresses the impact of the 1947-1949 Arab-Israeli War on the Jordanian capital during the late 1940s and 1950s. A number of themes are examined: Amman during wartime; the settlement of the Palestinians; change and continuity in terms of Jordan's centralization process and Amman's urban growth; and, finally, the city's transformative socioeconomic structures and political forces. This article argues that the influx of Palestinian refugees transformed the public culture of Ammani society, which became much more politicized than before. It is also argued, however, that the political developments of the late 1940s and 1950s were not sufficient to overturn the defining characteristics of Amman as it had existed before the 1947-1949 Arab-Israeli War. As a result of the 1947-1949 Arab-Israeli War, thousands of Palestinians fled their homes and settled in Amman. Among the Palestinian refugees in Amman were many fellahin, workers, and urban professionals. The Jordanian capital was also drawn into the tense regional turmoil of the 1950s and became host to harsh economic inequalities. Yet there were continuities with previous periods: many of the laws and structures inherited from the Ottomans and British continued to define life in the city well into the 1950s even after the refugee crisis. Despite the assassination of King §Abdullah in 1951 and the abdication of his son King Talal in 1952, the Hashemite monarchy survived under the rule of King Hussein. The process of centralization and urbanization that had been initiated by Ottoman officials and furthered by British officials was also maintained, as was the general momentum of institutional modernization and municipal expansion. Educational institutions, government departments, health facilities, transportation infrastructure, banks and municipal services were all improved and expanded. Unless otherwise noted, all translations of quotations from texts that were originally published in Arabic were done by the author of this article. Interviews were conducted in both Arabic and English.

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References (36)

  1. §Abd al-Mun §im al-Rifa §i, al-Amwaj: safahat min rihlat al-hayat (Amman: Ministry of Culture, 2002), pp. 73-74.
  2. Munif, Story of a City, p. 281.
  3. Hacker, Modern Amman, p. 39.
  4. Majali, Mudhakarati, p. 177.
  5. This comparison is made in the memoir of the British travel writer Ethel Mannin, entitled The Lovely Land: The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (London: Hutchinson, 1965), p. 111. Mannin first visited Amman in 1962.
  6. Hacker, Modern Amman, pp. 39-40, 88; UNRWA, 'Jabal el-Hussein refugee camp', http://www.unrwa.org/ etemplate.php?id¼126 (accessed 26 May 2010);
  7. UNRWA, 'Amman New Camp refugee camp', http://www. unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id¼ 129 (accessed 26 May 2010).
  8. Kirkbride, From the Wings, p. 47.
  9. Asad, Old Houses of Jordan, p. 35; for a similar point, see Eugene Rogan, 'The Making of a Capital: Amman, 1918-1928', in Hannoyer and Shami (ed.), Amman: The City and Its Society.
  10. Asad, Old Houses of Jordan, p. 35.
  11. Maynard Owen Williams, 'Home to Holy Land', National Geographic Magazine, 98 (Dec. 1950), pp. 707-745. Quotes on pp. 707, 708, 716, 739. 41 Interview with Fawwaz Sharaf, 12 June 2007. 42 Interview with Zeid al-Rifa §i, 1 September 2007.
  12. Hacker, Modern Amman, pp. 63, 87.
  13. Ibid., pp. 43-44. 45 Interview with Sharaf, 12 June 2007.
  14. Roderick Parkes to the Foreign Office, 8 February 1963, FO 371/10265. Reprinted in Alan de L. Rush, ed., Transjordan: The Reign of King Hussein, Vol. 9 of Records of the Hashimite Dynasties: A Twentieth Century Documentary History (Slough: Archive Editions, 1995), pp. 681-690. See p. 683.
  15. Hacker, Modern Amman, p. 43.
  16. Eugene Hoade, East of the Jordan (Jerusalem: Franciscan Press, 1966), p. 25; 'The Boy King', TIME Magazine, 2 April, 1956.
  17. Hacker, Modern Amman, pp. 113, 116.
  18. Aruri, Jordan, pp. 66-69. Aruri wrote that 'East Bank cities are [were] gaining population at the expense of rural districts', and that the 'rising population makes the city the center of political activity. The once-tranquil city of Amman has seen frequent demonstrations . . . ', pp. 66-69.
  19. Munif al-Razzaz, Rasa›il ila-awladi: awraq ghayr manshura (Amman: al-Urdunn al-Jadid Research Center and Sinbad Publishing House, 1995), p. 53. Razzaz was born in Damascus in 1919. His father was an ex-officer in the Ottoman Army and a veterinarian who left Damascus for Amman in 1925-1926 because of French surveillance and pressure during the Syrian Revolt. Razzaz studied in Amman and Jerusalem before pursuing medical studies at the American University of Beirut, teaching secondary school in Amman, and completing his medical degree at Cairo University. He joined the Jordanian-branch of the Ba §ath Party in 1950, was elected to Jordan's parliament in 1951 and succeeded Michel §Aflaq as the secretary general of the whole Ba §ath Party in 1965. He died in Baghdad in 1984, after spending five years of forced residence in Iraq. The author's biography is provided in Rasa›il ila-awladi.
  20. Majali, Mudhakarati, p. 63; Kirkbride, From the Wings, pp. 21-22; Wilson, King Abdullah, Britain and the Making of Jordan, p. 169; Avraham Sela, 'Transjordan, Israel and the 1948 War: Myth, Historiography and Reality', Middle Eastern Studies, 28 (1992), pp. 623-688. Meyerson met the King in Amman on 10-11 May 1948.
  21. John Scofield, 'Hashemite Jordan, Arab Heartland', National Geographic 102 (Dec. 1952), p. 848. 68 Interview with Sharaf, 12 June 2007.
  22. Munif, Story of a City, p. 249; Razzaz, Rasa›il ila-awladi, p. 53.
  23. Razzaz, Rasa›il ila-awladi, p. 53. 71 Munif, Story of a City, p. 250.
  24. Ibid., pp. 253-255; Majali, Mudhakarati, pp. 195-196.
  25. 'Communism in Trans-Jordan', TNA: PRO FO 816/103 (April 1950).
  26. Majali, Mudhakarati, p. 193.
  27. Aruri, Jordan, pp. 94-101;
  28. Majali, Mudhakarati, pp. 195-196; Safadi, Sirat Amman, pp. 119-131; Munif, Story of a City, pp. 248 -257.
  29. Plascov, The Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, p. 17.
  30. Hacker, Modern Amman, p. 130.
  31. Plascov, The Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, p. 17. 80 This description is used to explain Palestinian political sympathies in the West Bank between 1949-1967 by Mishal, West Bank/East Bank, pp. 74, 89, xii, but in my opinion, applies to the Palestinians of Amman as well. Quote on p. 89. 81 Mishal, West Bank/East Bank, p. 91. 82 Parkes to the Foreign Office, FO 371/10265 (8 February 1963).
  32. Kirkbride, From the Wings, p. 64. 84 Salah came to Amman in 1948-1949. He fled H ˙aifa after 1948 and initially went to Beirut where his stay was short-lived. Salah left Beirut for Amman after receiving an invitation from King §Abdullah I to work in Jordan. In my interview with Salah, who was in his nineties and is now deceased, he recalled that §Abdullah's invitation, passed along in letter form through Jordan's Ambassador to Lebanon, emphasized that the Jordanian government needed Palestinians 'to stand by them to get Palestine back'.
  33. Aruri, Jordan, p. 40.
  34. Ibid., pp. 40-42.
  35. Hacker, Modern Amman, p. 76. 97 Parkes to the Foreign Office, FO 371/10265 (8 February 1963).
  36. Hacker, Modern Amman, p. 132.