Opening session of the Jordanian Parliament, half of whose delegates represented constituencies from the West Bank. One of the first acts of the assembly was to merge the West Bank with Jordan. By this one stroke, the Jordanian population nearly tripled to 1.5 million. Only half a million of the population was properly Jordanian, residing east of the Jordan River; the remainder consisted of Palestinians, one half of whom were refugees from Israeli territory. Abdullah's government made the additional gesture of offering Jordanian citizenship to Palestinians everywhere. Jordan was the only Arab state to do so.
Promulgation of a constitution. Jordan received a bicameral legislature: a lower house of 40 elected deputies (half from the West Bank) and an upper house appointed by the king. The cabinet was responsible only to Parliament. In practice, most members of Parliament invariably stood behind the king, who retained considerable influence.
