Assassination of Jordan's King Abdullah I in 1951 destroyed best chance for Mideast peace

The (Trans-)Jordanian King Abdullah ibn-Husseini was killed on July 20, 1951, in Jerusalem. (Source: Cecil Beaton / Imperial War Museum / Public Domain / Wikipedia)

A Palestinian assassin killed Abdullah I in Jerusalem on July 20, 1951. With him died the hope of resolving the murderous conflict between Arabs and Jews without violence. An admirer of Hitler played a key role.

The Assassination

On July 20, 1951, the 21-year-old Palestinian Mustafa Shukri Ashshu shot at Abdullah I, the King of (Trans-)Jordan, and killed the ruler with several shots to the chest. The perpetrator himself died immediately in a hail of bullets from the bodyguards. But with the death of the 69-year-old head of the Hashemite dynasty, the assassin also extinguished the best chance for a reasonably sustainable peace in the Middle East.

The Mastermind

The tailor from the Old City of Jerusalem was acting on a mission. He was in contact, via intermediaries, with the former Grand Mufti of the Holy City, Amin al-Husseini. This Muslim cleric — though without notable religious training — had not only vigorously promoted Arab-nationalist antisemitism in the erstwhile Ottoman province, then the British Mandate of Palestine.

Moreover, the Mufti lived in Berlin from 1941 to 1945, meeting Hitler personally once and Himmler several times. After the war ended, Abdullah I appointed a new Mufti of Jerusalem, which further intensified Amin al-Husseini's hatred of the Jordanian king.

Abdullah's Pursuit of Peace

Abdullah's efforts to bring about a balance of interests between Arab Palestinians and the Jews — some of whom were also born locally, as well as the mostly European immigrants, almost always Holocaust survivors — were well known. Unlike the nationalist governments in Cairo and Damascus, the (Trans-)Jordanian king focused on de-escalating the conflict with the State of Israel, founded in 1948.

(Trans-)Jordan comprised the part of the southern Levant and its hinterland up to the Iraqi border that was not part of the British Mandate of Palestine.

Abdullah I accompanied by his bodyguard in East Jerusalem (undated photo). (Source: picture alliance / World History Archive)

Secret Diplomacy

From 1947 onwards, Abdullah spoke repeatedly with Golda Meir, the chief negotiator of the Jewish Agency for all matters of cooperation with Arabs. After the first Middle East war, multiple meetings followed in 1949/50 with Reuven Shiloah. This Jerusalem-born Jew was considered the intelligence expert of Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and became the first director of the Mossad.

Abdullah invested much effort in convincing the officials of his kingdom, who came from the Arab upper class, of the idea of seeking a compromise with the Jewish state. However, both the often nationalist-antisemitic functionaries and the public in (Trans-)Jordan remained deeply skeptical.