Intensidad de los ciclos

In this period Jordan still comprised of lands on both sides of the Jordan river, combination of the West Bank and the East Bank. Prior to the first Arab-Israeli conflict in 1947 the West Bank Palestinians were an integrated group within the Jordanian community and the central government had little reservation to accept them as its own citizens. With advancement of Israeli occupation of the Arab lands in 1947, however, a new wave of Palestinian refuges paraded into the West Bank and the east Jordanian territories. This development had two main effects. First, it changed the balance of population in favour of the Palestinians, so much that in the West Bank area, the refugees outnumbered the local Jordanians (600,000 refugees compared to the indigenous population of 30,000) (Lunt, J., 1990). Secondly, it created a greater Palestinian community in which the gap between rich and poor was manifestly visible. I.e. while the earlier members of Palestinian community were relatively wealthy and owned agricultural lands in the West Bank, refugees possessed little capital and were forced to live in temporary camps.

Compared to Bedouins and the land-owning tribes, the original Palestinian population of Jordan were on average more educated and wealthier than the locals, and hence were more inclined to occupy the official and bureaucratic positions. Arrival of the new refuges, however, helped to increase the Palestinian population in the whole country, and provided their elite with a chance to bid for political power in Jordan, as well as to secure their communal access to basic resources (such as to land and employment). This chance came

in 1952 when King Talal (1951-1952) expressed his wishes for establishment of a constitutional monarchy in Jordan. Using their wealth and political skills, the Palestinians attained a sizeable majority in ministerial positions and the parliament and, from then on, used their representation to promote Palestinian interests and communicate with the central government authorities (Lunt, J ., 1990). The government did not seem to resent their over­ representation in the parliament, since they also represented an active economic community which had a significant role in creation of national wealth.

Palestinian political fortune, however, changed once more after King Hussein's ascent to power in 1952. He was only able to work with the existing parliament until 1955 when the so-called Palestinian plan for a coup was discovered and Jordanian army openly fought with Palestinian refugees in the camps. King Hussein dismissed Palestinian members of his government, dissolved the parliament on the basis of their alleged conspiracy against his rule and M P's involvement in creation of the riots in refugee camps. Thus the government took serious steps to relay on the native Jordanians, i.e. Bedouins and the East Bankers instead of Palestinian (Lunt, J., 1990).

Although the emergence of above mentioned riots had a lot to do with intolerable condition of life in the refugee camps, nevertheless, occurring confrontations between Palestinians and Jordanian army was an appropriate excuse for King Hussein to curtail the political power of Palestinians and isolate them as an outsider's community within his kingdom.

By 1956 the Palestinian purge was almost complete and the Jordanian government made little distinction between the Palestinian community of West Bankers and the Palestinians living in refugee camps, isolating the whole community from the political system and decision making process. They thus had to create their own semi-independent community structure within the country, alongside prevailing tribal system (Lunt, J., 1990). The result

was a political vacuum which would be quickly filled by the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (FLO).

Replacement of the Palestinian bureaucrats from their official positions had deprived their community from an important platform of power and public representation, but it had increased their organisational solidarity both within and without the refiigee camps. This process of moving towards political solidarity gained momentum by relocation of the PLO headquarters in the Middle East and its gradual establishment in Jordan.

When PLO officially opened its office in Jordanian soil it became increasingly shifted towards representing the Palestinian community o f Jordan in different social and political level as well as pursuing its struggle for liberation of Palestine. In 1958 the PLO received permission from Jordanian authorities to establish its military wing called al-Fatah in the country. Its overt aim was to organise an armed struggle against the Israeli occupation of Palestine (Mansfield, P., 1983). The king was aware that the presence of Al-Fatah may provoke Israel to carry out military attacks against Jordan but under pressure from its Arab allies he had to welcome the PLO and give them certain amount of flexibility to act independently from the existing government structure.

However by 1964, king Hussein and his government openly opposed PLO's sporadic raids on Israel as a cause of direct danger to Jordan's own national sovereignty (Mansfield, P., 1983). At the same time, the king resented the build up of the PLO's popularity within Jordan and felt indignant about switching Jordanian Palestinian's support to that organisation.

Finally, the king refused to allow the PLO to carry out its raids from the West Bank, and in reaction, the PLO declared its intention of creating a Palestinian state in Jordan. The PLO supporters proclaimed their leader to be "Jordanian president" and called on the army to

overthrow the king ( (Lunt, J., 1990). This announcement put the PLO in direct conflict with the government and royal family, and led to its expulsion from Jordan to Lebanon.