King Abdullah visits al-Baqaa camp, voices backing for Palestinian refugees rights
Jordan, Politics, 10/6/1999

King Abdullah II has asserted Jordan's backing for the rights of the Palestinian refugees. He called for strengthening national unity in the kingdom, which hosts more than 1.5 million Palestinian refugees who are awaiting the determination of their fate in the final status negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

At the conclusion of his visit on Tuesday to the al-Baqaa camp, which includes more than 120,000 Palestinians to the south of Amman, the Jordanian king said, "We will be always as before support and back any right for you and any right for our people and brothers to the west of the river (the Palestinian territories) when they establish their independent state on their own native soil."

King Abdullah stressed that the "people of the camps are a group of our one Jordanian family which has been patient under difficult conditions."

He addressed thousands of the citizens who crowded to greet him in his first visit to the Palestinian camps since he ascend to the throne in Jordan last February, saying, "We are one family. Your burdens are ours, a matter which requires our cooperation and coordination to build the society of justice and equality and national unity which we are all keen to preserve."

The king announced the "establishment of a hospital for serving the population of the camp and to allocate some 100 seats for the children of the camp's people in the state universities."

Earlier, the Jordanian king addressed a message to the Jordanian press, quoted by the Jordanian news agency Petra. It said, "National unity is one of our principles that should not ever be violated under any pretext." He recalled a statement made by his late father King Hussein that, "Those who want to undermine this unity are my eternal enemy."

King Abdullah explained that the decision of administrative and legal dismantling between the eastern and western banks of the Jordan River in 1988 did not mean "dismembering the unity between the same people of Jordan." He stressed, "Jordan's adherence to the cause of Palestine and its support for the Palestinian Authority in its efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as a capital.

18% of the Palestinian refugees live in 13 camps in Jordan, while others are distributed in the main cities of the kingdom.

Previous Stories:
  Jordanian authorities release four Muslim Brothers detainees   (10/5/1999)
  Jordanian delegation to final status negotiations   (9/22/1999)
  Arafat and Abduallah confirm necessity of Palestinian - Jordanian coordination   (9/17/1999)

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