In the early 1920s, Pinhas Rutenberg bought land in the Naharayim region from King Abdullah to build a hydroelectric power plant. The mandatory border established in 1922 ran west of this land, effectively making it part of Transjordan, which obtained full independence in 1946. After Israel’s War of Independence (1948) and the ensuing Armistice Agreement (1949) signed on Rhodes, kibbutzim in the region began growing crops in the Naharayim area.
The peace agreement signed October 26, 1994, by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and jordanian King Hussein determined that the official border between their two countries would be based on the mandatory border. This posed a problem for Moshav Tzofar, in the Arava region, and two kibbutzim, Ashdot Yaakov (Ichud) and Ashdot Yaakov (Meuhad), in the jordan Valley, because their fields and orchards are located east of the mandatory line, within jordanian territory. As a gesture of goodwill, jordan agreed to allow Israeli farmers there to continue to work the lands for a period of 25 years.