In 1994 Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty. The treaty normalized relations between the two countries and resolved territorial disputes. There are some 2.7 million Palestinians living in Jordan, including some 1.5 million “refugees”, between 60-80% of the population in a country formed out of the partition of the British Mandate of Palestine.
In 1946 over 70% of the British Mandate of Palestine was granted to the Hashemite Kingdom. The remaining 30% was divided again, between Jews and Arabs, with a new separate entity under a failed UN partition plan simply called “Palestine”. Both Jordan and Palestine have the same flag, with the only difference being the addition of a white star to denote the Hashemite Monarchy in Jordan. Although controlled by the Hashemites, Palestinians are a majority in Jordan, and comprise a diverse culture, “descendants of Christians, Jews and other earlier inhabitants of the southern Levant whose core reaches back to prehistoric times.”
The resulting conflict and ideological battle over Palestinian and Israeli identity has been ongoing since the Israeli War of Independence in 1948. Following the war, Jordan annexed the West Bank and East Jerusalem, occupying the territory for a period of two decades from 1948-1967. Following the 6 day war of 1967, Jordan was forced to relinquish control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The dispute over the borders between Israel and the Palestinian State of Jordan were resolved in 1994. Israel and Jordan agreed to honor the Washington Declaration, signed July 25, 1994, and based on a U.N. Security CouncilResolution, they declared the termination of the state of belligerency between them and established peace between them in accordance with the treaty.