By Mohammad Ben Hussein
AMMAN - Police on Sunday dispersed dozens of activists who gathered in front of the Ministry of Agriculture to protest against the import of Israeli products.
Stressing that the protest was illegal because organisers did not obtain the required approval, Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications Nabil Sharif said the authorities would investigate any incidents that took place during the protest.
The protesters, who included Islamist activists, leftists and students from the University of Jordan, chanted anti-Israeli slogans and called for putting an end to imports from Israel, particularly fruits and vegetables, believed to be cultivated in West Bank settlements.
“If you boycott you will not die, but if you buy, someone else will die,” read one banner with a picture of an Israeli sniper.
As the demonstration turned violent, the Gendarmerie Forces were called in. Armed with batons, members of gendarmerie dispersed the demonstrators, beating at least three of them.
One protester, whose head was bleeding after receiving a blow from a baton, was taken into custody.
Public Security Department Spokesperson Major Mohammad Khatib reiterated that the protest was illegal.
“It’s our right to disperse them because they broke the law,” he told The Jordan Times yesterday.
At least four people, including senior officials from the professional associations, were briefly detained.
Jordan Engineers Association President Abdullah Obeidat, who was among the detainees, condemned the police action as a “reminder of the martial law era”, and he and other association leaders called for holding police officers accountable for their actions.
“This is an insult to the nation because the association represents 150,000 Jordanians. We protested for the sake of our country, but we were attacked,” Obeidat said in a press conference held after the sit-in.
Obeidat said it was “within the association’s rights to protest and express themselves and demand an end to all types of normalisation” with Israel, urging the government to deal with citizens in “a civilised manner”.
Later on Sunday, Interior Minister Nayef Qadi paid a visit to the Professional Associations Complex to discuss the issue with association leaders, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra, which quoted Jordan Pharmacists Association President Taher Shakhshir as saying that the interior minister promised to investigate the issue.
Shakhshir said association leaders plan to hold a meeting with Agriculture Minister Saeed Masri on Monday to discuss the issue of imports from Israel.
In a statement to Petra, Sharif emphasised the government’s keenness to protect citizens’ rights to express themselves in a legal manner, reiterating that the organisers of the protest did not obtain the authorities’ approval.
He added that the government was transparent in dealing with the issue of imports, with the agriculture minister holding a press conference earlier Sunday to detail the government’s stand.
Quoted by Petra, Sharif said Qadi also met with association leaders and “asked them to respect the law and to coordinate before carrying out such activities”.
