A few interesting points came out of the lecture. It gave me more context about the relationship of Palestinians, particularly those from the West Bank, and Jordanians. What I didn't know before was that during the Arab-Israeli War in 1948, Transjordan conquered and annexed the West Bank. Being on both sides of the Jordan River, the West Bank and East Bank, Transjordan renamed itself Jordan, and claimed sovereignty over the West Bank as a full part of Jordan. However, only two other countries recognized this annexation, and West Bankers never accepted Jordanian sovereignty. In the Six-Day War, Israel occupied the West Bank, which still lasts today, and Jordan later, in the 80's, relinquished its claim to sovereignty over the area. Even today, there exists a distinction between West Bankers and East Bankers in Jordan, as well as some animosity on the actions of Jordan that didn't exactly help the Palestinians.
As it's been made very clear to me, Jordan's done quite well considering the enormous amount of refugees that have arrived from neighboring countries. The country has about 9 million people within its borders, about 6 million of which are Jordanian citizens. Approximately 30% of its population are non-citizen refugees. To put that in perspective, imagine if the United States had 140 million refugees. How do you plan for that kind of situation? The lion's share of refugees arrived from Syria, with others from Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Libya, Egypt, and temporary workers, many undocumented, from South Asia. The fact that Jordan hasn't collapsed under the enormous economic burden, or closed off its borders to more refugees like the Gulf states (which haven't even accepted any refugees) is a miracle.
In addition, the lecture touched upon the Arab Spring, and recent history around Jordan. Syria, Egypt and Iraq have all descended into chaos within recent years. Lebanon has experienced (if I remember correctly) multiple civil wars, and still has violent unrest to this day. What made Jordan resilient to the Arab Spring, and why has Jordan remained the only monarchy in the Levant? Well, the theory presented by our program leader, Dr. Denis Sullivan, was that it was the Jordanians, who saw the outcome of the Arab Spring in Egypt and Syria, and decided to value the stability and order of the monarchy over achieving their demands. After all, on the whole, the monarchy isn't exactly running the country to the ground. There's a generally positive vibe I'm feeling about the monarchy from the Jordanians I've met.
Afterwards, we headed towards Umm Qais. Umm Qais is home to even more Roman ruins, but was was really striking was the view that we had of Israel, Israel occupied territory in Syria, non-occupied Syria, the Sea of Galilee, and even Lebanon. In one view, we could see the Sea around which Jesus Christ preached, and look to the East and see ISIS-controlled territory. Sights like Umm Qais, the apricot farm, and Mount Nebo give me a sense of the small scale and the dense complexity of the region, especially compared to what I'm used to in the US. Countries, factions, ideologies, religions, nations are all competing in such a small space that's been fought over for millennia. Every inch of this land has a very long memory, and there's not THAT much of it.
No clue why but I found this so amusing
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