Israel–Jordan Peace Treaty

The challenge

This peace was not born in a day. King Hussein had been meeting Israelis in secret since the 1960s, and according to the journalist Moshe Zak those meetings added up to more than seven hundred hours of conversation.¹ On 25 September 1973, eleven days before the Yom Kippur War, he sat across from Golda Meir and warned her that war was coming.² Beside her sat Mordechai Gazit, director-general of the prime minister's office, who according to his memorial site took down the conversation.³²

In 1975 Hussein met Prime Minister Rabin in secret,⁴ and in 1987 he reached the London Agreement with Shimon Peres, which Israel's government did not adopt.⁵ None of these attempts succeeded, but each kept a channel open.

Jordan needed water, an agreed border and recognition of its role in Jerusalem; Israel wanted a quiet eastern border and a neighbour outside any hostile alliance. After the Oslo agreement the two could move in the open. The negotiators were Elyakim Rubinstein, Efraim Halevy and Peres for Israel, and Fayez Tarawneh and Prince Hassan for Jordan.⁴

The road there

1. 25 September 1973At a secret meeting, Hussein warns Golda Meir that Egypt and Syria are preparing for war.²³
2. 1975A secret meeting between Hussein and Rabin, in Rabin's first term as prime minister.⁴
3. 11 April 1987Peres and Hussein reach the London Agreement; Israel's government does not adopt it.⁵
4. 14 September 1993The day after the Oslo signing, a common agenda for talks is signed in Washington.⁴
5. 25 July 1994The Washington Declaration ends the state of belligerency.⁴
6. 26 October 1994Rabin and Majali sign the treaty at the Arava crossing, with Clinton signing as witness.⁶ In his speech Rabin speaks to the Jordanian mother and the Israeli mother,⁷ and Hussein calls the treaty a gift to the generations to come.⁸
7. 10 November 1994Rabin and Hussein exchange the instruments of ratification at Beit Gabriel, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.⁹
8. 13 March 1997A Jordanian soldier, Ahmed Daqamseh, opens fire on an Israeli school class visiting the Island of Peace at Naharayim and murders seven girls aged 13 and 14. King Hussein comes to console the bereaved families.¹⁰
9. 10 November 2019The special regime at Naharayim and Tzofar ends, and Jordan resumes full control of both areas.¹¹

The people

Led

Yitzhak Rabin · King Hussein of Jordan

Negotiated

Shimon Peres · Elyakim Rubinstein · Efraim Halevy · Prince Hassan bin Talal · Fayez Tarawneh

Signed

Yitzhak Rabin · Abdul Salam Majali

Witnessed

Bill Clinton

What was agreed

• Border: the Mandate-era boundary line, with minor adjustments, and without prejudice to the status of territories that came under Israeli military government in 1967.⁶¹²
• Peace and security: no force or threats, no hostile alliances, and preventing terrorism from either side's territory. Full diplomatic relations, with ambassadors within a month of ratification.⁶
• Water: fixed seasonal shares of the Yarmouk and the Jordan, and cooperation to find Jordan another 50 million cubic metres of drinking water a year.⁶
• Jerusalem: Israel respects Jordan's special role in the Muslim holy shrines, and will give it high priority in the permanent-status talks.⁶
• Refugees and displaced persons: to be dealt with in multilateral frameworks and in the permanent-status negotiations.⁶
• Naharayim/Baqura and Tzofar/Al-Ghamr: Jordanian sovereignty, with Israeli farmers allowed to go on working the land for 25 years, renewed automatically unless one year's notice is given.¹³

Read the document

The geography

The hard decisions

• Israel recognised Jordanian sovereignty over land that Israeli farmers had worked, and settled for use rights for a limited period.¹³
• The Knesset approved the treaty by a large majority, 105 to 3.¹⁴ In Jordan's parliament 23 deputies voted against it,¹⁵ and opposition to normalisation went on: parties, activists, professional associations and former officials have organised hundreds of protests since the 1990s.¹⁶
• The core issues between Israel and the Palestinians, Jerusalem and the refugees, were explicitly left to other negotiations.⁶

Where accounts differ

According to Jordanian opponents of normalisation

Relations with Israel should not be treated as normal. The anti-normalisation committee, whose members include a former intelligence chief, Ahmad Obeidat, has protested since the 1990s. Its campaign against the gas deal presented buying Israeli gas as support for the occupation; the government went ahead with the deal.¹⁶

According to Jordan and Israel, on water

According to a July 2026 report, Jordan asked to renew the extra-water arrangement for five years. An Israeli official replied that Israel supplies the water the treaty requires and has no obligation to provide more.¹⁷

According to The Jordanian Foreign Ministry, on Al-Aqsa Mosque / Al-Haram Al-Sharif (May 2026)

Israel, as the occupying power, has no sovereignty over the site. The whole compound is a place of worship for Muslims only, and the Jerusalem Awqaf Department, part of Jordan's Ministry of Awqaf, is the sole authority that administers it. Incursions by Israeli extremists violate the status quo and try to divide the compound in time and space.¹⁸

According to Israel's undertaking in the treaty

Israel respects Jordan's special role in the Muslim holy shrines in Jerusalem, which Jordan calls the Hashemite custodianship, and will give it high priority in the permanent-status negotiations. The treaty leaves the status of Jerusalem itself to those negotiations.⁶

What changed in real life

• There has been no war between the two countries since 1994, and they have an agreed border.⁶
• Israel supplies Jordan with water and natural gas.¹⁷²¹

What remains open

• The special regime at Naharayim and Tzofar was not renewed: King Abdullah II gave notice in October 2018, and it expired on 10 November 2019.¹¹ The treaty itself allowed this step.¹³
• The 2021 arrangement under which Jordan bought another 50 million cubic metres of water a year lapsed in November 2025 and was not renewed.¹⁷
• Al-Aqsa Mosque / Al-Haram Al-Sharif, the Temple Mount for Jews, remains a constant point of friction; in September 2026 Jordan protested over entries to the site,²⁵ which it calls incursions.¹⁸

Photos, videos and quotes

King Hussein of Jordan26 October 1994

This is peace with dignity. This is peace with commitment.

King Hussein of Jordan6 November 1995

You died as a soldier for peace and I believe it is time for all of us to come out openly and to speak of peace.

1995Watch here: Rabin's funeral and the eulogies – AP footage

Rabin's funeral and the eulogies – AP footage

6 November 1995 · AP Archive

At the funeral King Hussein eulogised Rabin as a brother, colleague and friend – only a year after the two signed the peace treaty. President Mubarak, President Clinton and Rabin's granddaughter Noa Ben Artzi also spoke.

1994Watch here: King Hussein and Rabin address Congress – C-SPAN archive

King Hussein and Rabin address Congress – C-SPAN archive

26 July 1994 · C-SPAN

This is the archival record of the speech in which Rabin introduced himself by his military number and described himself as a soldier in the army of peace, a day after the Washington Declaration was signed.

Rabin’s speech starts at 40:55.

1994Watch here: Signing of the Israel–Jordan treaty – Kan News report

Signing of the Israel–Jordan treaty – Kan News report

26 October 1994 · כאן | חדשות - תאגיד השידור הישראלי

Israel's second peace treaty with an Arab state was signed in the desert, on the border line itself, with King Hussein, Rabin and President Clinton present. It settled the border and water sharing and remains in force today.

1994Watch here: King Hussein's speech at the Israel–Jordan treaty signing

King Hussein's speech at the Israel–Jordan treaty signing

26 October 1994 · reds6476

Jordan became the second Arab state to make peace with Israel, and Hussein framed it as peace between peoples, not only governments.

1995Watch here: World leaders at Rabin's funeral

World leaders at Rabin's funeral

6 November 1995 · AP Archive

The funeral became a rare moment of regional leaders standing together in Jerusalem, with King Hussein mourning Rabin as a brother and friend.

1996Watch here: King Hussein visits Israel

King Hussein visits Israel

10 January 1996 · החדשות הישנות

The visit showed that peace with Jordan carried on after the assassination, as a bond between people and not only documents.

1994Watch here: Clinton at the signing of the Israel–Jordan peace treaty

Clinton at the signing of the Israel–Jordan peace treaty

26 October 1994 · clintonlibrary42

President Clinton at the signing of the Israel–Jordan peace treaty, Arava/Araba crossing, 26 October 1994

1994Watch here: Signing of the Israel–Jordan peace treaty – AP footage

Signing of the Israel–Jordan peace treaty – AP footage

26 October 1994 · AP Archive

Signing of the Israel–Jordan peace treaty, 26 October 1994 – archive footage.