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Al-Ahram Weekly 31 August - 6 September 2000 Issue No. 497 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 31 August - 6 September 2000 Issue No. 497
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Keeping the peace cool
By Lola KeilaniThe battle waged by Jordan's professional syndicates against normalisation of relations with Israel intensified this week following several demonstrations and a two-day conference, which brought together anti-normalisation activists from all over the Arab world.
Participants in the conference ended their deliberations with a call for tighter coordination of Arab and Islamic efforts to isolate Israel. Thirteen Jordanian professional associations, controlled mainly by the Muslim Brotherhood group, have been leading the campaign against normalisation of ties with Israel since the two countries signed their peace agreement in 1994.
Over 5,000 Jordanians staged on 25 August the country's largest anti-Israel rally in nearly a decade, urging Hamas and other militant Islamic groups to follow Hizbullah's model in south Lebanon. "Let Hamas do its effective work in protecting Al-Aqsa Mosque and liberate Palestine," said Abdel-Majeed Zunaibat, head of the Muslim Brotherhood group.
The evening rally was the third event organised by the Muslim Brotherhood and its political wing, the Islamic Action Front (AIF) since the failure of the Camp David summit between Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak last month. Reported Israeli proposals on sharing sovereignty over Al-Haram Al-Sharif and occupied East Jerusalem fuelled the anger many Jordanians feel towards Israel.
Some of the anti-normalisation activists who gathered in Amman said that they understood Jordan's political imperatives in signing a peace agreement with Israel, but they believe that Amman should not allow its interactions with that state to go beyond the realm of a no-conflict situation. Other hardliners rejected the peace treaty itself and argued that Israel has been using Jordan as a Trojan horse to make inroads into the Arab World.
Moderate Jordanian politicians, who had expected to see an economic boom in the country after the signing of the treaty, are also drifting towards the anti-normalisation campaign as an International Monetary Fund (IMF)-prescribed economic reform has started to bite.
Addressing last week's conference, activists contended that Jordan was increasingly living under what they described as Israeli influence and called for a unification of efforts to fight Israel.
"Anti-normalisation activities need to be coordinated on a Jordanian [and] regional level to effectively counter the Israeli penetration of Arab lands," said Jordanian activist Ali Abu-Sukkar.
Equally vociferous was Mustafa Bakri, editor in chief of the Egyptian weekly Al -Usbu.' "Zionism aims to dominate the region and we have to develop tools to oppose this movement," said Bakri.
Abu-Sukkar, who heads the Jordanian Professional Associations' Anti-Normalisation Committee, presented the experiences of Jordanian "anti-normalisers," while fellow activist Bakri addressed the struggle from the Egyptian perspective.
"After signing the treaty, Jordan politically marketed Israel in the Arab and Islamic world," he asserted. He added that Jordanian laws had been amended to make it easier for Israeli products to be imported to Jordan. "Israeli products are marketed in Jordan under Arab and foreign names and are exported to other Arab and Islamic countries," said Abu-Sukkar. He also blasted amendments in school textbooks, which he said smoothed over conflicts in Jordan-Israeli history.
The anti-normalisation activities in Jordan coincided with unconfirmed reports that the United States and Israel had been pressing Jordan's King Abdullah to assume control over the Islamic holy shrines in Jerusalem. A well-informed source told Al-Ahram Weekly that Israel and the US, in recent contacts with King Abdullah, have been specifically referring to a clause in the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty signed in October 1994, which stipulates that Israel would recognise and respect Jordan's "special role" concerning the Islamic shrines in Arab East Jerusalem.
That "special role" means, according to the Israeli intepretation of the clause, that the control of the shrines would be handed over to Jordan rather than the Palestinians. The West Bank, including Jerusalem, was under Jordan's control until Israel's occupied in the area after winning the 1967 war against Arab armies. King Abdullah visited Israel and Palestinian self-rule areas last week, but officials denied that he discussed any particular proposals related to the future of the disputed city.
King Abdullah's father, the late King Hussein, retained Jordan's status as the guardian of the Islamic shrines in Arab East Jerusalem when he renounced Jordan's legal and administrative relations with the Israeli-occupied territories in July 1988. The late king subsequently explained that he retained Jordan's religious role in Arab East Jerusalem averting a vacuum, which would allow the Israelis to take control of the Islamic shrines there since the Palestinians were not yet ready to fill that vacuum.
Israel, which has ruled out returning Arab East Jerusalem to the Palestinians, appears to use the "Jordanian card" as a diversion away from the broader Muslim demand that Arab East Jerusalem, which houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest shrine in Islam, be returned to the Palestinians, according to the same informed source.
"Israel is aware that the Muslim World would not stand still if it usurps control of the Islamic holy places in Arab East Jerusalem," said the source. "They [Israelis] do not want the Palestinians to gain control of the shrines and would settle for Jordan's administration of the shrines to satisfy the Muslim demand that Jews don't take over the places."
"But King Abdullah is standing firm," said the source. "He has clearly told [Israel Prime Minister Ehud] Barak and US officials that Jordan would not want to have any role that would substitute the Palestinian right to Arab East Jerusalem."
