Page 70 - Egypt & the Eternal Nile by Private, Classic River-Yacht

National Holidays: Jordan

In addition to the national holidays 9Pb DPL]ɪ^ /Ld
listed below, Jordan celebrates a number
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of national holidays that follow a lunar
calendar, such as Easter and Eid-al-Fitr. To 4YOP[PYOPYNP /Ld
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holidays, please visit www.timeanddate. .S]T^_XL^ /Ld
com/holidays.

Historical Overview of Jordan
Pre-20th-Century History

Today’s Jordan was part of Palestine—most of which is now the state of Israel—until the early
20th century. For more information, see the pre-20th-century history section under Israel.

Modern History

The Ottoman Empire fell after World War I, and Britain took Palestine and renamed it
Transjordan, with King Abdullah its ruler.

In 1948 Israeli Arabs and Jews went to war, and became far too preoccupied to notice when
Transjordan claimed the West Bank and part of Jerusalem as its own, and renamed itself
Jordan. In 1953 King Hussein took the throne and Jordan’s economy soared, thanks to tourism
and generous aid from the U.S. Israel retook the West Bank and Jerusalem during The Six
Day War of 1967—Jordan’s tourist trade and much of its agriculture disappeared. Palestinian
refugees poured in from the Occupied Territories. Before long, the PLO was threatening King
Hussein’s power. An especially violent war ended only when many of the radicals moved
to Lebanon.

The 1994 peace treaty between Jordan and Israel dropped economic barriers and increased
cooperation on security and water. But Palestinians worried that the treaty did not account
for their presence in the region and many felt threatened. Jordan increased ties with Yasser
Arafat’s Palestine National Authority and worked toward agreements with them. As King
Hussein moved his country toward democracy, he has also mended relations—cut during the
1991 Gulf War—with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Hussein’s death in February 1999 left the future
uncertain. He had named his eldest son, King Abdullah II, to succeed him just weeks before
he died, but the move was controversial because the Constitution requires that both the king’s
parents be Arab and Muslim by birth (Abdullah’s mother was a British citizen).

Recent History

Despite the controversy over his succession, King Abdullah II enjoys support from the
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community. Part of the credit for his “approval ratings” goes his widely popular consort,
Queen Rania, whose parents were Palestinian refugees in Kuwait. In the years since his
succession, the King has moved his country towards closer relations with Israel. For example,

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