How a king reclaimed his capital from a state within a state in 1970
Following the 1967 conflict, Palestinian militants established a powerful, autonomous presence inside Jordan. By 1970, their influence had grown so disruptive that King Hussein viewed them as an existential threat to his monarchy. The resulting civil war, known as Black September, fundamentally reshaped the region's political landscape and Palestinian history.
After losing the West Bank to Israel in 1967, thousands of Palestinian fighters known as fedayeen moved into Jordan, using it as a base for cross-border operations. Their strength surged following the 1968 Battle of Karameh, which was widely celebrated as a psychological victory against the Israeli military. Within a year, the PLO had effectively become a state within a state, establishing independent administrative control in refugee camps and openly challenging the Hashemite monarchy's authority.
Tensions reached a breaking point in September 1970 when the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijacked three civilian aircraft and forced them to land in the Jordanian desert. The militants blew up the planes before the international press, an act that King Hussein viewed as the final provocation. On September 17, he declared martial law and ordered the Jordanian Army to clear the fedayeen from major cities like Amman and Irbid. The military campaign was brutal, involving heavy shelling of refugee camps where militants were entrenched.
The conflict escalated when 10,000 Syrian troops, bearing Palestine Liberation Army markings, crossed the border to support the fedayeen. However, the Jordanian military successfully repelled the invasion with a coordinated aerial and ground offensive, forcing the Syrians to withdraw by September 22. By July 1971, the remaining fedayeen were driven out of Jordan entirely, relocating to Lebanon. The fallout was profound: the Black September Organization emerged to target Jordanian officials, most notably assassinating Prime Minister Wasfi Tal, before shifting its focus to international attacks, including the 1972 Munich massacre.
Historians note that the conflict was not a simple ethnic divide, as both Jordanians and Palestinians fought on opposing sides. King Hussein’s decision to confront the PLO was a calculated move to preserve his sovereignty, though it came at the cost of thousands of lives and permanently altered the relationship between the Jordanian state and the Palestinian population.
Source: Black September
