234 Jordan, Hashemite monarchy in Bank and the more religiously significant East Jerusalem Tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees poured across the border into Jordan in June 1967, changing the demographics and ultimately the domestic stability of the kingdom That uneasy situation collapsed in September 1970, when guerrilla forces of the Palestine Liberation Organization fought the royalist forces of the Hashemite government This Jordanian civil war resulted in a bloody Hashemite victory and the expulsion of PLO guerrilla forces from Jordan More than half the population of Jordan today is of Palestinian origin Although this West Bank/East Bank ethnic divide is sometimes overstated, it remains a significant feature of Jordan’s society, its political economy, and of the Jordanian state itself Much of the Jordanian government, public sector, and military is dominated by East Bank Jordanians, while much of the private sector is dominated by Palestinians Following the disastrous 1967 war, the Hashemite regime maintained its claim to the West Bank and East Jerusalem for two decades But in 1988 in the midst of the first Intifada, it renounced these claims and turned instead toward consolidating its rule east of the Jordan River Indeed, Jordan remained under martial law from the 1967 war until it was lifted in 1992 as part of the overall political liberalization process The regime’s concerns for stability were underscored dramatically in 1989 by domestic unrest triggered by an economic austerity program initiated under the aegis of the International Monetary Fund With the intifada raging west of the Jordan River, and domestic unrest erupting in Jordan itself, King Hussein initiated measures to address public demands and to reestablish the stability of the regime That opening helped reestablish the regime’s base of domestic support, thereby shoring up its stability and allowing it to sign a controversial peace treaty with the State of Israel in 1994 In 1999 King Hussein died after a long battle with cancer In a surprise move, the king had abruptly changed the line of succession merely weeks before his death, dismissing his brother Hasan as crown prince and appointing instead his eldest son, Abdullah With Hussein’s death, King Abdullah II ascended the Hashemite throne His reign was marked by strong efforts to continue the economic liberalization process, emphasizing a neoliberal model of development and shoring up Jordan’s relations with key Western powers and international economic institutions But this emphasis on economic development and stable foreign relations also forced political liberalization to a lower priority level Under Abdullah, the kingdom survived still more regional unrest and even began battling terrorism within Jordan itself These internal and external security concerns did not dissuade the monarchy from its emphasis on economic development, but they often provided the pretext for lack of progress in reviving Jordan’s seemingly stalled program of political liberalization Further reading: al-Madfai, Madiha Rashid Jordan, the United States and the Middle East Peace Process, 1974–1991 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993; Ryan, Curtis R Jordan in Transition: From Hussein to Abdullah Boulder CO: Lynne Reinner, 2002; Satloff, Robert B From Abdullah to Hussein: Jordan in Transition Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1994 Curtis R Ryan