Black September: The Question No One Asks About Palestinian Refugees

Today, in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Iranian-supported Hamas terrorists, people ask questions such as why the Palestinians still allow Hamas to run their government, why Hezbollah is allowed to exist in Lebanon, and why neighboring Arab nations will not accept Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank into their countries. And these are valid The root causes of how the Arab-Muslim nations took a rather dim view of allowing Palestinians into their nations to join others already residing there has its origins in the 1970 Jordanian Civil War. Better known as Black September, a name taken later by PLO terrorists, it was a turning point for the Palestinian liberation movement. The civil war ended the PLO state within a state in Jordan and pushed the Palestinian armed struggle into Lebanon, where it later helped to destabilize that Christian country and, with Iranian support, created several Islamic extremist groups. Let's see how that all unfolded. What was the Jordanian Civil War? How did it start? Who was involved? What was the result? Hello, I'm Colin Heaton, former history professor, Army and Marine Corps veteran, and welcome to this episode of Forgotten History. Beginning of the toughest 26 days in Marine Corps history. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians became refugees trying to enter neighboring countries following the Israeli victory. The Arab states did not want additional populations of uneducated immigrants and believed that accepting them would come with few problems. First, the Arab states pushed for an independent Palestinian state that would move the Jews out of Israel or, at the very least, allow them to occupy large parts of the new country. Israel, however, was not on board. This refusal to accept refugees bolstered Arab support for a Palestinian state. Social issues also erupted which emerged during the 1965 Arab League Casablanca Protocol, stating that Palestinians in Arab states should receive certain rights such as employment, movement, and travel documents while retaining Palestinian nationality, although there was no Palestinian nation. This was to maintain their refugee status as outsiders, and there was a reason. After the 1948 war, Jordan was the primary nation that did accept large numbers of Palestinians and granted citizenship to many after Jordan annexed the West Bank in 1950. They soon regretted it because violent factions were embedded within the refugee population. Following the Six-Day War in 1967, Palestinians living in specific areas who supported the Arab coalition were removed and placed into settlements. Egypt controlled Gaza from 1948 until Israel captured it in 1967 but did not absorb Gazans due to fears of radical groups. Egypt neither annexed Gaza nor made Gazan Egyptian citizens, believing that doing so could create major political and security problems. Syria historically gave Palestinians more access to work, education, and public services than Lebanon did, but it also did not naturalize them. The Syrian government also used Palestinian factions as instruments of regional policy. Palestinians could live there, but they remained politically useful as Palestinians, not Syrians. All the Arab states welcomed Palestinian workers. Lebanon had a delicate sectarian political system divided among the ruling Christians, Sunni Muslims, Shia Muslims, Druze, and elections occurred along religious lines. Allowing Palestinians in and giving them citizenship could have shifted Lebanon's balance of power politically. The primary reason for this opposition was the 1967 Six-Day War, which brought another mass movement of Palestinians after the Israeli capture of the West Bank and Gaza. Egypt and Jordan both refused to move Palestinians out of Gaza, giving the argument that it could permanently undermine Palestinian statehood. Egypt also worried about its national and domestic security, hence not allowing immigration. They did not want terrorists migrating with refugees. Another factor was the 1970 Black September revolt against King Hussein by armed Palestinian terrorists, which threatened the monarchy. Here is how that unfolded. The PLO, Al-Fatah, and Fedayeen groups had already established bases in Jordan even before 1970, and launched attacks against Israel from Jordanian territory, set up checkpoints, carried weapons openly, and increasingly challenged King Hussein's authority. These Palestinians were also creating criminal gangs and crimes, especially against women, skyrocketed. By 1970, their presence became a direct threat to the Hashemite monarchy. Every terrorist strike against Israel from Jordan was met with a rapid, violent, and superior response. Jordanians were being harmed as a result. King Hussein decided he did not need that headache. The crisis erupted after several September 1970 hijackings of airliners by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The aircraft were later destroyed after the passengers were removed. King Hussein, who walked a delicate balance between the Western powers and the Soviet Union, was seen as a supporter of terrorism, which he was not, and this pressure saw the Jordanian army move against the Palestinian terrorists. The terrorist argument was that, because Arab states refused large-scale permanent naturalization, the Palestinians claimed the territories of what they called historic Palestine, such as the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza after the 1967 war. Arab states did not want to absorb the Palestinians and make the issue disappear, as it gave them political leverage in the UN, and Israel did not want a mass invasion to destabilize their country. So, Palestinians were left stuck between both positions. Many Palestinians in Jordan had family, identity, and historical ties to the West Bank, and they blamed Israel. This was the catalyst for launching attacks against Israel, but when King Hussein ordered that stopped, they turned on the king and his government. The PLO had, in fact, created a de facto separate state within Jordan. After the failed assassination attempt on King Hussein on September 1st, four airliners were hijacked by the PFLP to gain international attention. Martial law was declared. Then, the terrorists started attacking civilians and the military on September 15th. This escalated on September 17th into open and violent fighting between the army and the Palestinian guerrillas, with each side accusing the other of unleashing full-scale hostilities. Tanks and armored cars went into action in bitter fighting against guerrillas in Amman. The heavy fighting near the British and American embassies and housing areas was brutal. As terrorists started taking heavy casualties and lost 16 districts, their underground radio station made appeals to the other Arab nations for help, particularly Syria and Iraq, while at the same time vowing to continue the fight against King Hussein's government to the last man and the Now, Iraq had 12,000 troops in Jordan and their headquarters at Mafraq, but they never attempted to intervene in the civil war, not wanting to get involved, although the rest of the Arab world announced strong support for the Palestinian guerrillas but offered no assistance. But Syria was waiting. They knew that if Hussein were overthrown and the Jordanian army controlled, they may be able to retake the Golan Heights from Israel. On September 17th, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser sent the UAR chief of staff, Lieutenant General Mohamed Sadek, to Amman, Jordan to appeal for a ceasefire as soon as possible. He also requested that PLO leader Yasser Arafat be involved after he went underground after assuming the duties of commander-in-chief of the guerrilla forces. Nasser said in his letter carried by Sadek that the situation could not be allowed to go on as it was, describing it a shame to the whole Arab world. He wanted a ceasefire as soon as possible, if only for 24 hours. King Hussein's reply to Nasser in a radio broadcast by Amman radio was very clear. There would be no negotiations with the terrorists. Then Damascus radio in Syria made the broadcast on September 20th, announcing support for the attacks on King Hussein and his government calling for the overthrow of the Hashemite butchers, pledging support for the glorious Palestinian revolution, and accusing King Hussein's army of wishing to liquidate the Palestine resistance movement. The last part was true. Hussein was engaging a terrorist group wanting to overthrow his kingdom. Three days later, Syrian forces crossed the border with two armored brigades and accompanying infantry, starting a tank battle at Ramtah on the Damascus-Amman highway and five miles from Deraa, the nearest town in Syria. Jordanian forces blocked the Syrians from reaching the terrorists, who hoped the Syrians would help, as they managed to kill and capture over a thousand terrorists in Amman alone. This included Ibrahim Bakr, a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization. With exception to several small pockets of resistance, by the next day, on September 21st, in Amman, Jordanian forces were in control of Amman in total and several other cities. The Jordanian army's 40th armored brigade had gone into action against the invading Syrian force in the north and cut off Syrian access to those terrorist strongholds which fell one by one. Amazingly, the Syrian government officially denied that Syrian forces were taking part in the invasion of Jordan, despite their soldiers being killed and captured. Then Damascus radio demanded the U.S. 6th Fleet leave the eastern Mediterranean, fearing they may intervene to help Jordan. The Syrian people were also told to expect an American invasion. The Syrians also accused the Jordanians of committing atrocities against Palestinian refugee camps, but not admitting the terrorists were using those camps as bases of operation. Very similar to what Hezbollah and Hamas do today with Israel. The U.S. State Department issued a statement that there was no doubt that the Syrian government is responsible and that the Syrian armed forces are involved in the invasion, and that a division of American paratroopers, the 82nd Airborne and a force of U.S. Marines had been placed on full alert for the possible evacuation of U.S. citizens from Jordan. The Royal Jordanian Air Force went into action attacking Syrian Soviet-made tanks and armored vehicles. The reports from the nearby Israeli-held Golan Heights indicated that fighting had been very heavy and that the Syrian force had been totally destroyed. A communique from Field Marshal Majali to the King announced that all Syrian invaders still alive had been driven back across the border. Seeing that victory was assured, and to try and minimize even more casualties, on the eve of an Arab summit meeting in Cairo, King Hussein ordered a ceasefire to put an end to the tragedies which the conspiracy against our country has brought about, and an appreciation of our responsibilities at this historic moment. On September 23, the four-man mission, led by Egyptian General Nemri, flew to Amman on September 23, met King Hussein and four guerrilla leaders, including Arafat's representative Abu Iyad of the Central Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and al-Fattah announced that both parties had agreed to a ceasefire. The agreement stipulated that the PLO would move to the ceasefire lines between Jordan and Israel, the PLO would be considered the only valid representative of the Palestinian people, no guerrilla bases would be allowed in Jordanian territory, and the remaining Palestinians would have to obey Jordanian law. General Nemri and his mission flew back to Cairo apparently under the assumption that the agreement had been accepted by the PLO and King Hussein. However, due to the explicit parts that demanded the complete removal of all PLO bases in Jordan, Arafat immediately and publicly refused to accept the agreement, declaring that the signatories, including his own representative Abu Iyad who signed it, had no authorization to do so and were not representative of the Palestinian people. Arafat reiterated that the PLO and al-Fattah would fight on until the fascist regime in Jordan is toppled. Under international pressure, even supported by the Soviet Union, the saw the civil war come to an end on September 25th when a definitive ceasefire agreement was reached by King Hussein and Yasser Arafat. The new 14-point agreement formally ending the civil war in Jordan was signed on September 27th at the Nile Hilton Hotel in Cairo by King Hussein and Arafat, both of whom signed in the presence of 10 Arab heads of state who witnessed the agreement. The Jordanian civil war of 1970 was a disaster for the Palestinians politically, militarily, and strategically. Jordan became more valuable to the United States and other western governments as a stable anti-radical Arab monarchy. Hussein's victory was a major intelligence and political victory for Jordan. In future, no armed movement could exist in Jordan, which tightened internal security and reasserted royal control over the army, bureaucracy, and political life. Reports submitted by Arafat stated that up to 25,000 Palestinians had been killed and injured by Jordanian forces. An independent report submitted in Paris on October 6th to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization stated that the casualties caused by the fighting in Jordan now appear to be far less than were at first reported and that the total did not exceed 700 killed and 1,300 civilian wounded. Most of those were civilians harmed by the PLO and Al-Fatah. As a result, once forced out of Jordan, the PLO moved to southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley and created the refugee camps around Beirut, becoming the new headquarters for Palestinian terrorism. In retaliation, Jordanian Prime Minister Wasfi Al-Tal was assassinated on Arafat's order in November 1971. So, the two wars waged against Israel in 1948 and 1967 created a great Palestinian diaspora that flooded into Jordan, which then became a battleground between Palestinians wanting to overthrow the government and King Hussein's forces. The civil war defeat sent those same terrorists into Lebanon, creating another set of problems for the region and the world. Today, the PLO and Black September no longer exist, but the splinter groups that were created and operating under the direction and financial support of Iran, such as Hezbollah and Hamas, continue to carry the banner of Islamic nationalism through terrorism, using the Palestinians as a talking point without doing anything really to assist them. Thank you for watching this episode of Forgotten History. If you liked what you saw, please click like, share, and subscribe. And if you would like to assist with the ever-increasing costs of production, please consider becoming a channel member and joining our Patreon page. And thanks for watching.