Demonstrations in Jordan have continued throughout six months of Israel’s war on Gaza. But unlike previous protests, this rally had fewer Palestinian flags floating above the crowd, and police checked IDs and paraphernalia at a gate leading to the protest area. 

Dozens of demonstrators held up smartphones with the Palestinian flag on the screens. They waved their phones as they chanted for an end to the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty and took aim at Jordanian security authorities. “No to security grips,” they chanted. 

For half a year, pro-Palestine demonstrations outside the Israeli embassy have rocked the Jordanian capital, Amman. But amid rising anger and growing protests, Jordanian security forces launched a crackdown on demonstrators and political activists.

The crowds began to swell outside the embassy around Friday, March 22, as anger brewed during Israel’s siege of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza. On Sunday, March 24, allegations that Israeli forces raped and killed women in the hospital further fueled the anger among demonstrators. An estimated 60% of Jordanians are of Palestinian origin. Many have friends or relatives in Gaza. 

“Repression”

On Tuesday, March 26, an invitation was spread widely for Jordanians to “besiege the Zionist embassy.”  That night, more than 2,000 protestors marched towards the heavily guarded embassy compound. But baton wielding police pushed back the angry crowd, causing clashes to erupt. Wednesday, March  27 witnessed a similar scenario: the fourth consecutive day the protests were marred with violence and hundreds of arrests.  

Since Oct. 7, Jordanian authorities have arrested over 1,500 individuals for their protest activities, according to Louay Obeidat, a lawyer with the National Freedom Forum, who has been tracking the arrests. 

Adam Coogle, Human Rights Watch’s deputy Middle East director, said the recent wave of arrests “show the extent to which Jordan is intolerant of spontaneous, massive protests and is not guaranteeing Jordanians’ rights to peaceful assembly.”

Coogle added, “Authorities will tolerate protests to a certain extent, but at the end of the day, they return to repression and to keeping tight control over the public square.”