Black September

This article, Black September in Jordan, describes the events surrounding September, 1970 in Jordan. For the terrorist organization, see Black September (group).

September 1970 is known as the Black September in Arab history and sometimes is referred to as the "era of regrettable events". It was a month when Hashemite King Hussein of Jordan has moved the Palestinian organizations which were attacking Israel from the Jordanian territories. The violence resulted in heavy civilian Palestinian casualties. Armed conflict lasted until July 1971 with the expulsion of the PLO and thousands of Palestinians to Lebanon.

Background

Following the shock of Israel's overwhelming victory in the 1967 Six Day War and the ensuing occupation of Jordanian, Syrian and Egyptian territory, a number of Arab groups were looking for alternatives to conventional inter-state warfare to recover territory and advance other goals. In particular, displaced Palestinian Arabs constituted a large internal population of Jordan and had support from many Arab regimes, most notably Egypt's President Nasser. Israel was repeatedly hit with cross-border attacks by fedayeen guerrillas. The Palestinian National Liberation Movement Fatah had been organizing such attacks since 1965, but received much broader support following the 1967 defeat.

Battle of Karameh

Main article: Karameh

In response to a series of attacks originating from Jordanian territory, the Israel Defense Forces entered the village of Karameh on March 21 1968. The village was said to be the guerrilla capital. The Israelis, who aimed to destroy Fatah in their assault, were unsuccessful and quickly withdrew. Arafat managed to leave Karameh at night after being informed of the impending attack. In the battle some 300 PLO militants were rounded up by Israeli forces by mid-morning. King Hussein has given an order to the Jordanian forces to not intervene but some Jordanian offciers opposed and has led the battles in full-force. The arrival of Jordanian troops shifted the tide of the battle and managed to inflict serious damage on the IDF. An estimated 28 Israeli soldiers were killed and 80 wounded; the IDF also lost four tanks. Although the Jordanian Army had been decisive, the incident was a public relations coup for the PLO and Arafat in particular. The Karameh battle boosted Palestinian morale and gave the PLO additional prestige within the Arab community.

Yasser Arafat claimed this as a victory - because he did not want king Hussein to calim it- (in Arabic "karameh" means "honor").

Seven-point agreement

In Jordan, the police and army were losing their authority because the Jordanian people preferred the authority of the PLO. Uniformed PLO militants openly carried weapons, set up checkpoints and attempted to collect what they called "taxes". During the November 1968 negotiations, a seven-point agreement was reached between King Hussein and Palestinian organizations:

• Members of these organizations were forbidden from walking around cities armed and in uniform
• They were forbidden from stopping civilian vehicles in order to conduct searches
• They were forbidden from competing with the Jordanian Army for recruits
• They were required to carry Jordanian identity papers
• Their vehicles were required to bear Jordanian license plates
• Crimes committed by members of the Palestinian organizations would be investigated by the Jordanian authorities
• Disputes between the Palestinian organizations and the government would be settled by a joint council of representatives of the king and of the PLO.

The PLO, reneging on this agreement, acted like a state within a state in Jordan. Between mid-1968 and the end of 1969, no fewer than five hundred violent clashes occurred between the Palestinian guerrillas and Jordanian security forces. Acts of violence against civilians and kidnappings frequently took place. Chief of the Jordanian royal court (and subsequently a Prime Minister) Zaid al-Rifai claimed that "the fedayeen killed a soldier, beheaded him, and played soccer with his head in the area where he used to live." , many other stories against the PLO had been invented by the Jordanian Government to gain the support of the Jordanian people.

The PLO also continued attacking Israel from Jordanian territory without regard to Jordanian authority.

Ten-point edict

King Hussein visited U.S. President Richard Nixon, and the Egyptian President Nasser in February 1970. Upon his return, King Hussein published a ten-point edict, restricting activities of the Palestinian organizations. On February 11, fighting broke out between Jordanian security forces and the Palestinian groups in the streets of Amman, resulting in about 300 deaths. Trying to prevent the violence spinning out of control, King Hussein announced "We are all fedayeen" and fired the interior minister who was hostile towards the Palestinians.

Armed Palestinians set up a parallel system of visa controls, customs checks and checkpoints in Jordanian cities and added more tensions to already polarized Jordanian society and the army.

In July, Egypt and Jordan accepted the U.S.-backed Rogers Plan that called for a cease fire in the War of Attrition between Israel and Egypt and for Israel's negotiated withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967, according to the United Nations Security Council Resolution 242. The more radical organizations in the PLO, George Habash's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Naif Hawatmeh's Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), and Ahmed Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command, decided to undermine Hussein's pro-Western regime.

Between February and June of 1970, about a thousand lives were lost in Jordan alone due to the conflict.

Events of September, 1970

Aircraft hijackings

Main article: Dawson's Field hijackings

On September 1 1970, several attempts to kill the king failed. On September 6, in the series of Dawson's Field hijackings, three planes were hijacked by PFLP: a SwissAir and a TWA in Zarqa and a BOAC in Cairo, on September 9, a British Airways plane at Amman, the passengers were held hostage. The PFLP announced that the hijackings were designed "to pay attention to the problem of the Palestinian people – which was not well known in that time - ". After all hostages were removed, the planes were demonstratively blown up in front of TV cameras. Directly confronting and angering the King, the rebels declared Irbid area a "liberated region".

Jordanian army attacks

After the invention of many stories and committing many conspiracies against the PLO, King Hussein gained the support of the Jordanian people. On September 16, King Hussein declared martial law. The next day, Jordanian tanks (the 60th armored brigade) attacked the headquarters of Palestinian organizations in Amman; the army also attacked camps in Irbid, Salt, Sweileh and Zarqa. Then the head of Pakistani military basis in Jordan, Brigadier Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (later Chief of Army Staff and President of Pakistan), took command of the 2nd division.

The Jordanian army with the help of the Pakistani - and other nationalities - forces attacked the Palestinian fighters and got immersed in heavy urban warfare with the Palestinian fighters. Many Palestinian civilians were killed.

Hussein has often been criticised because of the ordering of 'random' attacks, however, many justify Hussein's decisions, saying that he was out of options. For example, Queen Noor, Hussein's wife, described in her bestseller book title Leap of Faith how serious things were, how many people were killed by the Palestinian groups, and the fact that Hussein didn't actually want to do anything violent, but he was forced to !!!

Syria intervention attempt

On September 18, Syria tried to intervene on behalf of the Palestinian guerrillas.

American and Israeli involvement

The Jordanian king telephoned US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and asked for US air support to beat back the Syrian-backed attack. Kissinger instead told the king that he would ask the Government of Israel to intervene, a proposal the desperate king reluctantly accepted (since it would make him willy-nilly an ally and a puppet of the Israelis). The Israelis, however, stalled, demanding that the United States first act on their "shopping list" of advanced weapons (which the State Department and the Pentagon were sitting on in order not to upset the relative balance of forces in the Middle East). While Kissinger worked on filling the Israeli weapons order, IDF photoreconnaissance aircraft overflew the region of northern Jordan where Syrian tanks had penetrated. On the day when Kissinger exultantly told his Washington task force that the Israelis were ready to attack the Syrian tanks -- potentially igniting another Middle East war -- Director of Central Intelligence Richard Helms had his briefer show Kissinger aerial photographs confirming that all of the Syrian tanks had either been stopped dead by Jordanian artillery mounted on the heights or were streaming back into Syria. No US or Israeli intervention was required. (Kissinger subsequently barred Helms's briefer from the "victory party" held at the White House to celebrate the end of the crisis.)

President Nixon then sent an additional carrier task force and the USS Guam, an amphibious assault ship to supplement the 6th fleet. The U.S. Navy positioned itself off the coast of Israel and Jordan to protect American interests and citizens. U.S. Forces remained on alert in the area throughout September and October.

Hussein-Arafat Cairo agreement

By Nasser intervention both Hussein and Arafat attended the meeting of leaders of Arab countries in Cairo and on September 27 Hussein signed an agreement that treated both sides as equals. On September 28, Egypt's Nasser died of a sudden heart attack.

Casualties

Estimates of the number of the people killed in the ten days of Black September range from three thousand to more than five thousand, although exact numbers are unknown. The Western reporters were concentrated at the Intercontinental Hotel, away from the action. Nasser's state controlled Voice of the Arabs from Cairo reported genocide.

Events after September

The situation in Syria became unstable and soon Hafez al-Assad became the ruler of Syria in a coup d'état.

On October 31, Arafat, whose position was weakened, had to sign another agreement (similar to one of November 1968) that returned control of Jordan to the King, requiring the dismantlement of Palestinian militant bases and banning their members from carrying unconcealed weapons.

The violations continued and on November 9, Jordanian prime minister Wasfi al-Tal signed an order to confiscate illegal weapons. By January 1971, the army strengthened its control over the cities. Another agreement regarding surrendering weapons was signed and broken. After the discovery of illegal arms warehouse in Irbid in the Spring, the army placed a curfew and began arresting the rebels. On June 5, several leading Palestinian organizations including Arafat's Fatah, called on Radio Baghdad to overthrow King Hussein who was regarded as a "puppet separatist authority."

The army regained control over the remaining PLO strongholds, mountainous cities of Jerash and Ajloun.

Aftermath

The number of casualties in what resembled a civil war is estimated at tens of thousands, and both sides were involved in intentional killing of civilians. It was a turning point for Jordanian identity, as the kingdom embarked on the program of "Jordanization" of the society.

Palestinian militants were driven out to Lebanon as a result of the Cairo Agreement. See Lebanon Civil War.

The group Black September was established by Fatah members. On November 28 1971, in Cairo, four of its members assassinated Wasfi al-Tal. See also Munich massacre.

References

• Bregman, Ahron (2002). Israel's Wars: A History Since 1947. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-28716-2

External links

• Jordanian Removal of the PLO (globalsecurity.org)
• Hussein - the Guerrilla Crisis Country Studies at the U.S. Library of Congress, alt. [1]
• Black September: Tough negotiations 1 January 2001 (BBC)
• 1970 - Black September (HistoryCentral)
• Black September, The PLO's attempt to take over Jordan in 1970 (Uria Shavit, Ha'aretz Newspaper, May 28 2002)
• Why did Jordan expel the PLO in 1970? (palestinefacts.org)
• Black September in Jordan 1970-1971 (onwar.com)
• Hussein of Jordan: The Bloody King of Black September (Revolutionary Worker #995, February 21 1999)