CONFERENCES & WORKSHOPS 1996

 

  Series of Workshops on Jordanian-Palestinian Relations: Where To?
  March 25-27 / June 6-7 / July 11-13 / December 21-22.
London, Amman, Nablus, respectively.
Organized by: Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), London Center for Strategic Studies, University of Jordan, Amman Center for Palestine Research and Studies, Nablus.

Summary (25-27 March)
This series of five conferences treated the subject of the future of the relations between Jordan and the Palestinians in the context of the significant events that have transpired in the Middle East over the past several years. The conferences brought together Palestinians, Jordanians and British thinkers, who tried to come to some conclusions about these issues.

Summary (6-7 June)
Substantive issues presented and discussed included the following: implications of Israeli election results (Khalil Shiqaqi); reactions in the PNA (Asa'ad Abdul Rahman); land and water in the context of Jordanian-Palestinian relations (Tariq Al-Tel); trade and the Palestinian economy (Hisham Awartani); trade and the Jordanian economy (Hani Hourani); infrastructure (Ibrahim Badran); political elites and the rentier system (Yezid Sayigh); and the Jordanian-Israeli economic relations and their effect on Jordanian-Palestinian economic relations (Farida Salfiti).

Summary (17-18 September)
During the first day sessions the foreign policy positions of the US, Europe and Egypt in relation to the peace process were presented by a number of the participants and then discussed by the group as a whole. During the second day sessions strategic issues were discussed, including: security and the strategic setting, and military security in the Middle East.

Summary (21-22 December)
The meeting took place in Nablus, where the participants introduced papers discussing four scenarios of how the relations between Jordan and the Palestinian entity would develop. The four scenarios can be summarized as follows:

  1. Drift: no actor drives, general inaction, "wait and see."
  2. Separation: non-cooperation and separation between Jordan and the Palestinian entity, deliberately pursued by both independently.
  3. Cooperation: Jordan and Palestine work deliberately toward some form of confederation or federation.
  4. Functional solution: third actor, namely Israel under Netanyahu, imposes indefinite functional autonomy on the Palestinians in the West Bank (Gaza may possibly be a state, but is decoupled), and involves King Hussein as much as possible in the arrangement on the West Bank.

Dr. Mahdi Abdul Hadi presented a paper discussing the implications for Jerusalem in each of the four different scenarios.