The free trade zone was first raised when the Israel and Jordan signed an agreement in 1998 to establish an industrial park when the peace agreement was signed. An Israeli ministerial committee approved the project in November 2013 and the Jordanian approval came in April 2015. The actual construction is to begin soon.
The bridge plays a key part in this Jordan Gateway project – a joint industrial and business area spanning the river that is a natural border between the two countries. The bridge will be located in its territory on the Israeli side near Tirat Tzvi, south of Beit She’an.
There are currently two bridges used to cross the river between Israel and Jordan, the Jordan River Crossing located near Beit She’an at the northern end of the Jordan Valley, and the Allenby Bridge that crosses from Jericho.
The advantages for the two sides of such a free trade zone are obvious: free flow of workers, businessmen, goods, and raw materials, and all sorts of benefits and regulatory concessions, such as an exemption from corporate taxation, customs duties, purchase taxes, VAT, income tax, building registration fees, land taxes, etc. The location is also ideal – approximately halfway between Haifa Port and Amman, not far from Irbid, the second largest city in Jordan. This facilitates easy access to Europe and the US from the Israeli side, and to the Gulf of Aqaba and the Far East from the Jordanian side.
Relations between the foreign countries have become frayed against the backdrop of violent clashes on the Temple Mount in the Old city of Jerusalem. The Temple Mount compound has been at the epicenter of a surge in Palestinian attacks on Israelis and much Palestinian-Israeli violence. Under a longstanding arrangement, Jordan maintained custodial rights over the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem through an organization called the Waqf.
According to the plan, only authorized personnel and visitors will be allowed to enter the park, in which Israeli law will apply to the Israeli side and Jordanian law to the Jordanian side. A new governmental body called the Jordan Gateway Authority will be created to oversee activity on the Israeli side of the park.
