Israel announces construction of joint industrial park with Jordan

The Cradle

The multimillion-dollar project, known as the Jordan Gateway, was recently approved, but Amman has not commented on the matter

Israel has announced its plans to advance the construction of a joint industrial park with Jordan along their shared border.

The multimillion-dollar project, named the Jordan Gateway, was approved during an Israeli cabinet meeting on 31 July.

“Twenty-eight years after we made peace with Jordan, we are taking the good neighborliness between the two countries one step further. This is a breakthrough that will greatly contribute to the development and strengthening of the region,” Prime Minister Yair Lapid said at the cabinet meeting.

There was no immediate response from Amman regarding the bilateral project, despite work on the park having started a few years ago.

According to reports, the park is located in the northeastern part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and has an estimated cost of $59 million. It will include both Jordanian and Israeli factories on Jordan’s side of the park.

Tel Aviv announced on 30 July that it “will allow Israeli and Jordanian entrepreneurs and businesspeople to communicate directly” and “will produce joint initiatives in trade, technology and local industry.”

They added that this collaborative project will be advanced, developed and “operated in coordination and conjunction with the Kingdom of Jordan, with mutual agreement on the goals of the project and aspects of its operation.”

Last week, Lapid visited Amman to hold bilateral discussions with the Jordanian monarch in relation to a variety of issues.

During the meeting, Abdullah told Lapid that Palestine should be part of a US-sponsored regional economic project that could support regional stability.

According to Jordanian officials, Amman has been pushing Tel Aviv to include Palestine in more water-for-energy agreements, which may potentially be financed by Gulf countries.

Despite the peace agreement between Jordan and Israel in 1994, Israeli actions in the West Bank and Gaza over the decades have hindered cordial relations.

The Jordanian king also requested that Israel maintain peace with the Palestinian territories. This refers specifically to East Jerusalem and its holy sites, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, where tensions have recently escalated.

Israel provides the kingdom with freshwater supplies under the peace deal. In exchange, Amman has pushed Israel for leniency on Jordanian exports going into the occupied West Bank.

Despite Jordan’s close relations with Israel, the Hashemite kingdom continues to maintain good relations with regional players that are at odds with Tel Aviv, such as Iran, insisting that Tehran has never been a threat to their national security.