Jordan - History Palestine (including the present-day West Bank of Jordan) and Transjordan (the East Bank) were formerly parts of Turkey´s Ottoman Empire. During the First World War (1914-18), when Turkey was allied with Germany, the Arabs under Ottoman rule rebelled. British forces, with Arab support, occupied Palestine and Transjordan in 1917-18, when the Turks withdrew. When the British Government terminated its mandate in Palestine in May 1948, Jewish leaders in the area proclaimed the State of Israel, but Palestinian Arabs, supported by the armies of Arab states, opposed Israeli claims and hostilities continued until July. Transjordan's forces occupied about 5,900 sq km of Palestine, including East Jerusalem, and this was confirmed by the armistice with Israel in April 1949. In June the country was renamed Jordan, and in April 1950, following a referendum, King Abdullah formally annexed the West Bank territory, which contained many Arab refugees from Israeli-held areas. In July 1951 King Abdullah was assassinated in Jerusalem by a Palestinian Arab belonging to an extremist Islamic organization. The murdered king was succeeded by his eldest son, Talal ibn Abdullah, hitherto Crown Prince. However, in August 1952, because of Talal´s mental illness, the crown passed to his son Hussein ibn Talal, then 16 years of age. King Hussein formally took power in May 1953. At the first full meeting of the Arab League for eight years, convened in Amman in November 1987, King Hussein pursued his agenda of trying to forge greater Arab unity and, in particular, a rapprochement between Iraq and Syria. Prior to the meeting, Jordan restored full diplomatic relations with Libya; which had modified its support for Iran in the Iran-Iraq war and had urged a cease-fire. However, King Hussein´s appeal for Egypt to be restored to membership of the League (suspended following the Peace Treaty with Israel in 1979) was resisted by Libya and Syria, although 11 Arab states reestablished diplomatic relations after the summit meeting. Jordan also announced the resumption of co-operation with the PLO at the summit meeting. On 15 November 1988 the PLO proclaimed the establishment of an independent State of Palestine and, for the first time, endorsed the UN Security Council´s Resolution 242 as a basis for a Middle East peace settlement, thus implicitly recognizing Israel. Jordan and 60 other countries recognized the new state. In December Yasser Arafat addressed a special session of the UN General Assembly in Geneva, where he renounced violence on behalf of the PLO. The USA opened a dialogue with the PLO, and it appeared that Israel would have to negotiate directly with the PLO if it wished to seek a solution to the Palestinian question, and that Jordan´s future participation in the peace process was likely to be of less significance.