21 - 27 June 2001
Issue No.539
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 21 - 27 June 2001 Issue No.539 |
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Row over Hamas activist
The sudden arrival of Hamas activist Ibrahim Ghosheh at Amman airport has embarrassed the Jordanian government and caused a diplomatic crisis with Qatar, Lola Keilani reports from Amman
Until Al-Ahram Weekly went to print, Ibrahim Ghosheh, a leading member of the militant Palestinian Islamic group Hamas, was still stranded at Amman airport a week after his sudden arrival aboard a Qatari flight from Doha.
The Jordanian authorities, who expelled Ghosheh and three other Hamas activists to Qatar 18 months ago -- reportedly under pressure from the Palestinian Authority, Israel and the United States -- refused to allow Ghosheh entry and insisted he return to Doha on the same flight. Jordan disregarded Ghosheh's and Hamas' pleas that he, like his expelled colleagues, carried Jordanian passports and should never have been deported.
Before expelling the Hamas leaders to Qatar in November 1999, Jordan closed down the Hamas offices in Amman and said it would not allow non-Jordanian organisations to function out of its territory.
Police intensified their presence around Amman airport and prevented several Hamas supporters, mainly from Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood group, from staging demonstrations in the transit hall to protest against Gosheh's detention. Nor would the authorities allow Ghosheh's family to meet him.
Jordan has reportedly been considering various options to deal with the crisis, including his forced deportation to another country -- most probably Syria, Libya, Sudan, Yemen or Iran -- or his detention to face trial. Jordanian officials said they might consider allowing Ghosheh's entry in the event of his relinquishing his leading position in Hamas and committing himself not to take part in any political activity. This, however, was one option the Hamas leadership said was out of the question.
In Gaza, Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin appealed directly to King Abdullah to allow Ghosheh's entry.
"I asked King Abdullah to intervene directly to allow Ghosheh to stay in his country, in his land, Jordan, and to live with his family and his sons," Yassin said in a statement carried by news agencies. "It is his right as a resident under Jordanian law."
Yassin said he believed Ghosheh's return would "strengthen relations between the people of Jordan and Palestine and it will help the Palestinian cause."
Khaled Mishaal, head of Hamas's political bureau, who was among those deported with Ghosheh, appealed to the Jordanian government to change its position "in appreciation of Hamas and its role in resisting occupation since the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada."
"We are offering our souls in the Jihad (holy struggle) against Israel, and I can't believe that the Jordanian government is treating us this way."
Mishaal, who survived an assassination attempt by Mossad agents in Amman two years ago, added: "As for me, I will exercise my right of return to Jordan at the appropriate time."
Meanwhile, a crisis is clouding diplomatic relations between Jordan and Qatar owing to Ghosheh's arrival. Jordanian officials accused Qatar of breaking a tacit gentleman's agreement made between the two countries when the four Hamas leaders were deported to Doha. Jordan's official press has also attacked Qatar for purposely embarrassing the government by allowing Ghosheh to come back to Jordan at this time. Airport authorities suspended all Qatari Airways flights to and from Doha, and asked international carriers to tighten security measures against possible travel to Jordan of other Hamas activists. Jordanian officials insist that Ghosheh will stay at the airport until he returns on board the Qatari plane which carried him into the Kingdom from Doha. The government is also forbidding the aircraft to take off without Ghosheh, a move which Qatari officials described as a "violation of international aviation laws."
As a result of this growing dispute, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, Libya's leader Moammar Gaddafi and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said they were seeking a solution for the ongoing crisis between Qatar and Jordan.
Hamas and Jihad have claimed a series of suicide attacks on Israeli targets as the Intifada enters its ninth month. Cracking down on the group and arresting its members is one of the main points in the security plan presented to Palestinians and Israelis by CIA director George Tenet in order to restore calm in occupied Palestinian territories.
The Qatari Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Abdullah Al-Mahmoud said Qatar had agreed to host the activists for a certain period of time while Amman promised it would find a solution to the crisis.
"We informed Jordan last May that the activists might leave for Jordan through Qatar or another country, and that the issue should be solved. But we did not receive any answer from Jordan," Al- Mahmoud said. He added that Qatar would not "play the role of a police officer for the Jordanian authorities" by controlling the movement of Hamas leaders.
"Ghosheh is a Jordanian citizen, with a valid passport, who wanted to go back to his country. It is his affair and it's an internal issue for Jordan. So why are we asked to take him back?" he told reporters.
Many analysts consider that Jordan has been stage-managing the crisis with security considerations in mind rather than political vision. The political street in Amman, including political parties and professional unions, resents seeing its government entering a new confrontation with Ghosheh just when Hamas activists are confronting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
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