The Israeli cabinet approved Sunday the establishment of a joint Israeli-Jordanian industrial and employment border zone.
The “Jordan Gateway” will allow Israelis and Jordanians to “conveniently” cross between their countries to work on joint projects.
It calls for rebuilding a joint industrial zone between their countries for workers, engineers, managers and marketing agents and establishing a large park and a garden.
The initiative will increase employment in both countries, advance their economic and diplomatic relations, enhance peace and friendship and create joint initiatives in trade, technology and local industry.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid described the move as a breakthrough in relations with Jordan, noting that it will allow Israeli and Jordanian businessmen “to communicate directly.”
“Twenty-eight years after we made peace with Jordan, we are taking the good neighborliness between the two countries one step further,” he said during a cabinet session.
“This is a breakthrough that will greatly contribute to the development and strengthening of the region,” he added.
He said both sides agreed to advance this plan last week during his visit to Amman where he met with Jordan’s King Abdullah II.
The original plan for this joint industrial park was proposed during the 1994 Israeli-Jordanian peace talks.
“This is the main part of the advancement that we have made in bolstering ties with Jordan in the past year,” said Regional Cooperation Minister Esawi Frej at the cabinet meeting.
Ties between Israel and Jordan deteriorated in recent years, particularly following a 2017 incident in the Israeli embassy in Amman, when an Israeli security guard shot dead two Jordanians, one of whom had stabbed him with a screwdriver. The other was apparently killed unintentionally.
Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said his predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu had damaged relations with Jordan over an Instagram post he shared during his time as premier.
He referred to a photo Netanyahu shared in 2017, in which he is seen hugging the security guard who shot dead the two Jordanians.
Netanyahu’s support of the guard raised a furor in Jordan and led King Abdullah to denounce what he called “provocative actions that threaten regional security and riles up extremists.”
He urged Netanyahu to “take steps to bring the murderer to trial” rather than turn the case into a “political spectacle.”
Justice Minister Gideon Saar also voiced criticism at Netanyahu for straining ties with Jordan, saying “the relationship with them is complicated. There was frustration over lack of initiative on our side throughout the years.
