Yesterday saw another huge overreaction on the part of the Jordanian security forces to a demonstration calling for an end to Israeli agricultural imports. The demonstration was staged by Jordan’s pro-active professional associations – who became political active during the long years of martial law and to the government’s annoyance have remained so - despite many attempts by the authorities to convince them otherwise.
This time the associations were protesting against the import of Israeli fruit and vegetables, which they claim are grown in illegal West Bank settlements. The government denies these claims. Anyway, instead of letting the 300 or so protestors have their peaceful get together in front of the Agriculture Ministry and blow off a little steam, the government decided to send in the riot police who swiftly set about cracking a few heads on the grounds that the associations did not have the required permission to stage their protest.
And here is the rub of the matter: to stage any kind of gathering in Jordan you must have written permission from the authorities three days in advance. The problem, of course, is that such permission is really ever granted. When it is granted the protests are usually so staged that no self respecting activist would have anything to do with them.
A recent exception to this rule, of course, was during the Israeli bombardment of Gaza when the government bent the rules in order to allow the citizens to let off steam. However, as the Gaza protests snowballed, the authorities quickly stepped in to crush the demonstrations and deployed tanks on the streets around the Israeli embassy.
I remember as a journalist covering the al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day protest in downtown Amman and being surprised by the general lack of interest. Only a few hundred people had bothered to turn up. So I asked local shopkeepers how big this protest had been in the past and why people had lost interest.
The general conversation with several local shopkeepers went something like this:
Me: So how long have you had this shop?
Abu Ahmad: It’s been in the family for more than 30 years.
Me: How big were these marches in the past then?
Abu Ahmad: really big, lots of people.
Me: So what happened?
Abu Ahmad: They’re not free and haven’t been for a long time.
Me: How’s that? People are marching now and some even have their faces covered yet the security forces are not intervening. Don’t people care about Palestine anymore?
Abu Ahmad: Of course we do (angry). If these protests were free you would see hundreds of thousands marching all the way from here to al-Quds. Those you see taking part here are in league with the Mukhabarat. If normal citizens were to take part we would be dragged in for questioning.
I am not sure about the truth of these claims and people did seem to be taking part without any recriminations. Nevertheless, exaggerated or not, the claims of most of the shopkeepers I spoke do highlight the sense of fear held by citizens in Jordan with regards to taking part in demonstrations of any sort.
I also remember the reaction of the security forces towards Iraqis merely celebrating their football teams success in winning the Asian Cup final, mainly because I was interviewing an Iraqi girl among a crowd of jubilant fans (who hadn’t had much to cheer about for a long time) when a riot van pulled up and the police proceeded to beat the crap out of anyone within striking distance. The pretext this time was that the Iraqis had been firing guns in celebration. This, of course, was untrue and the real reason was more to do with the government not wanting such a large and visible Iraqi presence on the streets.
And also because in Jordan, the authorities just don’t like protests of any sort. Maybe a lot like Iran but probably even less tolerant.
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