HKOPS still the world’s best kept secret

I was privileged to attend the inaugural Jewish News Syndicate International Policy Summit in Jerusalem on 27/28 April (JNS Conference) – but shocked to find that none of the well- credentialled international and Israeli speakers I approached had ever heard of the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution (HKOPS).

HKOPS calls for the creation of a new territorial entity comprising Jordan, Gaza, and part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) to be named The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine.

HKOPS first emanated in Saudi Arabia in March 2020.

Authored by Ali Shihabi – an advisor to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) – HKOPS presented an alternative solution to President Trump's Deal of the Century which called for sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza to be divided between Israel and a newly-demilitarized Palestinian Arab state to be created for the first time in history between Israel and Jordan – rejected outright by PLO Leader Mahmoud Abbas.

HKOPS re-appeared in a revised form when the Saudi Government-controlled Al Arabiya News published it on 8 June 2022.

Such publication would have certainly required MBS's permission because of the revolutionary outcomes its successful implementation promised:

• Overturning Saudi Foreign Policy extending as far back as 1982
• Trashing the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.

Even more surprisingly HKOPS was further amended on 19 June 2022 but never published in Al Arabiya News or any other publication.

I had founded an international movement called Jordan is Palestine Committee (JIP) in 1980 calling for Israel and Jordan to divide sovereignty of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) between their two respective States and for Israel, Jordan and Egypt to agree on the allocation of sovereignty in Gaza between their three respective States.

JIP's objectives were similar to HKOPS – but could not possibly promise in advance the above outcomes reversing Arab foreign policies going back 40 years.

JIP sank from sight when the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993 – until JIP's solutions were publicly resurrected by HKOPS in 2022.