Transjordan’s occupation of Jerusalem in the 1948 war

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article describes the road to Transjordan’s occupation of Jerusalem during the 1948 Palestine war. While King Abdullah wanted to invade and occupy the city as part of his grand political ambitions, his British military chief-of-staff, Glubb Pasha, objected to this move due to his fear that Transjordan’s army (the Arab Legion) was not up to the task and that the occupation of Jerusalem, internationalised by the November 1947 UN partition resolution, would spark international outrage. Indeed, London responded to the move by joining the UN arms embargo and suspending military aid to Transjordan. This led to the kingdom’s effective departure from the war with Israel in July 1948, only two months after it had begun.