Jordanians want Israel peace treaty scrapped

The Daily Star
9/15/2011


AMMAN/CAIRO: About 300 Jordanians demonstrated near the Israeli embassy in Amman Thursday, demanding that the government expel the Jewish state’s envoy and scrap the joint 1994 peace treaty.

The protest occurred as Egypt’s Prime Minister Essam Sharaf said that Egypt’s 1979 peace deal with Israel was not “sacred” and could be changed in order to benefit peace or the region.

In Amman the protesters gathered outside Al-Kaluti Mosque near the Israeli embassy, a security source said.

“The people want to shut down the embassy. Amman must be liberated from the embassy and ambassador,” the protesters chanted.

“The people want the downfall of Wadi Araba [peace] treaty,” read a banner carried by the demonstrators, including opposition Islamists, leftists and youth groups.

Some set the Israeli flag ablaze while others tried to get closer to the embassy but were prevented from doing so by police.

Nearly all the staff, including Ambassador Danny Navon, had been cleared out of the Israeli embassy ahead of the protest Thursday for fear the mission could be attacked like the Israeli embassy in Cairo was last week, Israeli newspapers and radio stations reported.

A convoy transporting the Israeli diplomats left Jordan for Israel overnight, the Haaretz newspaper said.

Egypt and Jordan are the only two Arab countries that have made peace with Israel.

Nearly half of Jordan’s 6 million residents are of Palestinian descent. With Palestinian-Israeli peace talks stalled, some Jordanians fear Israel may try to substitute Jordan for a Palestinian state.

The Palestinians plan to ask the United Nations next week to endorse an independent Palestinian state, over Israeli and U.S. opposition.

Ties with Egypt have been strained by the ransacking of the Israeli embassy in Cairo Friday and the killing of six Egyptian soldiers last month. The deaths occurred as Israeli troops pursued militants who had crossed from Egypt into southern Israel and attacked vehicles near the border, killing eight Israelis.

Sharaf’s comments on the 1979 peace treaty were the strongest yet by the new government which took over after President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in February.

“The Camp David treaty is always open to discussion or for modification if that is beneficial for the region and for a just peace,” state-run MENA news agency reported, quoting remarks by Sharaf.