Pro-Palestine Protests Test Jordan’s Shaky Relationship with Israel
(AP Photo)
Protests in Jordan against the Israeli war on Gaza have escalated in recent weeks, particularly around the Israeli embassy in the Middle Eastern country’s capital of Amman. Hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists have been arrested, despite the largely peaceful nature of the ongoing demonstrations.
The demonstrations have been highly publicized, and represent the complexity of Jordan’s position as the war in Gaza rages on. The Jordanian government and its supporters, on one hand, oppose the demonstrations — with many officials blaming Hamas for inciting the activists. They fear that the protestors are placing “ideological concerns over national interests.”
Pro-Palestinian activists claim however, that the Jordanian government is not doing enough to oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza, which has killed at least 30,000 Palestinians so far according to the enclave’s Health Ministry. At least 75,000 Palestinians have been injured, and United Nations officials have warned that a famine in Gaza’s Northern half is imminent.
Due to Jordan’s large Palestinian population, Jordanian King Abdullah II is forced to position himself against Israel publically to maintain legitimacy on the domestic front.
Earlier in the war, Jordan withdrew its ambassador from Israel and told the Israeli counterparts to temporarily leave Amman. Furthermore, Jordan has played a significant role in securing humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza. Jordan has also suspended multi-million dollar pipeline deals with Israel intended to transfer water and energy between the two countries for the foreseeable future.
Nonetheless, Israel and Jordan continue to have diplomatic relations, which were normalized in 1994. Protesters in Amman are calling on the Jordanian government to put an end to the Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty that officially ended the state of war between the two countries that had lasted since Israel’s inception in 1948.
Jordan has faced further questions in recent days after shooting down Iranian missiles over its territory intended to strike Israel, in an apparent defense of the Jewish state during Tehran’s response to the IDF’s assassination of top Iranian officials in its Syrian embassy. Jordan claimed that the move was in self defense.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been at the forefront of Jordanian politics since it was granted independence from the United Kingdom in 1946 — and continues to be one of the Hashemite Kingdom’s greatest difficulties, both internationally and domestically.
Jordan's King Abdullah II speaks at the White House in front of U.S. President Joe Biden after a meeting to discuss the war in Gaza, as well as other ongoing affairs, Feb. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Jordan hosts the largest portion of the Palestinian diaspora in the world, with some estimates suggesting that over 60 percent of Jordanians are of Palestinian origin. The specific number is unclear, perhaps by design, as the Jordanian government has been credibly accused of withdrawing Jordanian citizenship of some Palestinians in the country in order to maintain “demographic balance.” Jordanian officials resent the idea argued by some Israelis that Jordan could be an “alternative” Palestinian homeland — although other pragmatic Israelis reluctantly support the Hashemite government out of fear that the country could become a powerful Palestinian state on its borders.
In essence, the Hashemite monarchy which has ruled Jordan for its entire history fears a Palestinian takeover of the country — and thus works to suppress the open secret that a majority of the population are refugees or descendants of refugees who fled west across the Jordan River during the 1948 and 1967 Arab-Israeli Wars.
The most notable conflict between Jordanian authorities and its Palestinian population was the Black September incident in 1970. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a left-wing faction of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), which resided in Jordan after Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, began calling for the overthrow of the Hashemite monarch King Hussein. After significant hesitation and several passenger plane hijackings, the Jordanian government felt forced to violently repress the PLO strongholds in the Palestinian refugee camps outside of Amman, killing thousands and forcing the PLO to relocate to Lebanon.
Under this context, it is no surprise that Abdullah II has staunchly rejected any further attempts by Israel during their war in Gaza to displace Palestinians — particularly with Jordan being the second most likely destination after Egypt.