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AMMAN — Jordan on Wednesday renewed a call for international investigation into the massacre committed by Israeli occupation forces against civilians in the Gaza Strip last week, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ayman Safadi said the probe is vital as it is part of Palestinians’ right to justice, stressing that the international community should protect civilians and enforce international law on Israel.

During a meeting with UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov on Wednesday, Safadi warned against the political deadlock and the lack of effective international action to end the occupation and secure the Palestinian people their right to freedom and an independent state, with East Jerusalem as its capital within the pre-June 4, 1967 lines. 

Safadi and Mladenov met before UN envoy delivered a report to the UN Security Council on the developments in the Palestinian territories.

They went over the obstacles hindering efforts to find a new horizon to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict peacefully and discussed means to overcome these challenges. 

Safadi and the UN special coordinator agreed that the efforts of the international community should be geared towards breaking the deadlock in the peace process and move forward to implement the two-state solution. They also underlined the need to take practical steps to end the humanitarian suffering in Gaza and ensure smooth delivery of services and assistance to the strip.

Safadi said that Jordan would continue providing support to the Gaza Strip, noting that the Jordanian field hospital in Gaza has increased its services to Gazans in implementation of directives from His Majesty King Abdullah. 

Safadi also warned against Israeli unilateral practices aimed at imposing new facts on the ground in Jerusalem, stressing that the international community must put pressure on Israel to stop its practices that threaten the historical and legal status quo of the Islamic and Christian holy sites in the city.

Safadi and Mladenov agreed to continue consultations and coordinate efforts to break the deadlock in the peace efforts.

AMMAN — The Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) is implementing a campaign during Ramadan to warn citizens against beggars impersonating waste collectors to ask for money.

The municipality has appointed police personnel and employees from the municipality's environmental department to monitor the streets and track anyone asking for money at red lights, near banks, or in mosques. It also called on citizens to call GAM's emergency hotline numbers to report such misconduct, or to file a complaint online through its official website, GAM's spokesperson Mazen Farajeen said.

Head of the Random sale Control Department Samer Hatamleh said that the municipality has arrested over 163 beggars posing as waste collectors in the last quarter of 2017. 

According to Hatamleh, the phenomenon usually increases during Ramadan and Eid, when people’s will to be generous is "at its peak". "This creates the perfect opportunity for beggars to manipulate people’s emotions and goodwill into giving them money," he told The Jordan Times. 

The official said that impersonating refuse collectors is a "smart move" that follows the municipality's fierce campaigns in the past to track down beggars which resulted in the public’s distrust — and almost absolute refusal — to give beggars money.

Posing as waste collectors is a feasible alternative, as their outfits can usually be bought in the black market, or be borrowed from an actual refuse collector, Hatamleh explained, noting that the process is "fairly easy" as waste collectors are given a new outfit every six months.

Residents in Amman have commended the campaign, saying the rise in this phenomenon is "irritating".

“Before I knew that there was any impersonation, I’ve always felt that giving money to a beggar is one thing, but giving it to a refuse collector is another. With beggars, I know that I’m being played, and that I’m only helping them continue asking for money instead of getting a job. But, with a waste collector, I assume that his job is not paying enough, and he wouldn’t ask for help if he didn’t need to," said Lara Ahmed, a 26-year-old living in Hay Nazal.

However, Ahmed Sameer, another Amman resident, told The Jordan Times that he knew something was up even before the municipality started warning citizens.

“There has always been one refuse collector working in our area. I knew him very well, and he never asked for money or anything similar. On the first day of Ramadan, someone I did not recognise was dressed as a waste collector and knocked on our door asking for a 'Ramadan Treat'," he remembered, adding "I knew something wasn’t right, because I had never seen him before so I didn’t give him any money, and I warned our neighbours not to do so either.”

The mischief by those individuals has actually been harming the city’s real refuse workers, who are now under close scrutiny because of this issue, according to several of them who spoke to The Jordan Times. 

“There are always good people in the area I work in who hand me money on occasions, without me asking. After the new campaign and the municipality’s strict rules, I cannot accept that much-needed money as I would get immediately fired if someone were to report me," Hassan, a waste collector, told The Jordan Times.

AMMAN — Heads of 30 associations and unions sent a letter to Prime Minister Hani Mulki on Wednesday, demanding a freeze of the income tax draft law.

“In the letter, we stressed that we were not part of the dialogue and the discussions that took place while drafting the income tax law, which we believe will increase burden on traders and citizens alike,” Khalil Haj Tawfiq, president of the Foodstuff Traders Association, told The Jordan Times on Wednesday.

Haj Tawfiq, also head of an under-establishment association that groups 30 associations and unions in various economic sectors, said there should have been a dialogue with representatives of various industries and professions.

The draft law was endorsed by the government on Monday and sent to the Lower House the following day.

The unionists called for a nationwide dialogue to come up with a consensus about the draft law with a view to protect the poor and the middle class and encourage investments, he said on Wednesday.

The government had posted the draft of the law online and called on all to give their feedback. Officials concerned with the law told reporters this week that a considerable part of the feedback was taken into account when changes to the first draft were made. 

The law is designed to increase revenues from the income tax by expanding taxpayers’ base, toughen penalties on tax evasion and improve collection. 

The unionists, according to Haj Tawfiq , reject the principle of adding taxes.

“All economic sectors of commerce, industry, agriculture, services and others are witnessing challenges and cannot take additional burdens,” he added.

“It is important that the law combats tax evasion, but it is very important also for the law to not result in negative consequences and place burden on the poor and the middle class segment in the society,” he added.

A copy of the letter was also sent to the Lower House, urging MPs not to endorse the law, he said.

The proposed law is expected to be debated by the House after Ramadan during an extraordinary session, pending a decree by the King. 

On Monday, the government endorsed the income tax draft law and said it was scheduled to be referred to the Lower House this week.

The government said the bill was put up for public debate for weeks and feedback was taken into account.

The government has already made adjustments to the sales tax and subsidy system, an unpopular move officials have stressed is vital to salvage an economy that has been struggling amid regional instability, a huge refugee influx and dwindling international support. 

The income tax draft law mainly focuses on three aspects: improving tax collection, curbing tax evasion and boosting tax revenues, which are expected to increase by JD300 million annually.

AMMAN — The 30th edition of the IMD World Competitiveness yearbook saw a slight increase in the ranking of Jordan, moving up 4 places, and landing 52nd. 

Planning and International Cooperation Minister Imad Fakhoury lauded the achievement, which marks a stop in a downturn in competitiveness rankings witnessed over the past few years. 

According to an IMD’s press release, this boost in the Kingdom’s competitiveness is due to “better government and business efficiency, as well as improved performance in several of the measured indicators such as public finance, tax policy, business legislation and digital transformation. All of which facilitate the creation and development of business in Jordan, especially so in the digital work frame which the world is in today, which changes the work we do and the way our economies work”.

However, the way for Jordan to rank among the world’s most competitive economies is long, the statement said.

“The country still ranks low in labour force, and even more so in the inclusion of women in the workforce. Additionally, the Kingdom’s domestic economy’s performance remains the same as last year ... In order for Jordan to strengthen its economic resilience, it should work towards a more inclusive growth and sustainable development, this includes poverty reduction and creation of jobs, particularly for women and youth.” 

In a press statement, Fakhoury said that the report is an important tool for policy and decision makers in the public and private sectors as an indicator of macroeconomic and subsector competitiveness.

The minister said that the drop in Jordan’s ranking in the past few years was “unacceptable”, prompting the ministry to put in place an action plan in 2016 and 2017 to stop the downturn and improve the Kingdom’s ranking in all global indicators including the Global Competitiveness Report and the World Bank’s index of Ease of Doing Business.

The ministry has also analysed the reasons behind the drop and proposed necessary remedial measures, which have seen the government intensify efforts to improve the quality of public services, investment environment and technical expertise, and better cooperation between the public and the private sectors, Fakhoury said.

The government is currently developing an executive action plan that aims to improve Jordan’s ranking in the report by focusing on the government, business and infrastructure efficiency, he said, adding that the government would also continue updating related legislation to improve the business and investment environment, all in accordance with the Jordan Vision 2025, the Executive Development Programme and the Economic Stimulation Plan 2018-2022.

AMMAN — When she started working with bees and cattle around 15 years ago, Sameera Mouawad said “she knew nothing about bees or how they work”.

“But I loved honey and I loved watching my neighbours work with bees,” Mouawad, who was the first woman in the Al Sukhnah area in Zarqa to practise beekeeping for a living, recalled.

She remembered that these neighbours kept their bees “in the most primitive ways and didn’t even have protective clothing”. 

Pushed by her love for beekeeping and by the need to support her family at a difficult financial time, she started looking for people specialised in modern beekeeping methods that include boxes and frames, which, she said “was a whole other world”.

“I looked at training from the Ministry of Agriculture at first; I worked with them and with IRADA [the Enhanced Productivity Centres Programme from the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation],” Mouawad recounted, adding that she also received financial help from the Agricultural Credit Corporation to expand her business.

“During that time, I became a member of the Jordan Farmers Union who sent me to Egypt to take beekeeping training. I then started to import bees from Egypt to reproduce and grow, but they eventually stopped the export so I depended on my own bees,” Mouawad told The Jordan Times. 

According to the USAID Jordan Local Enterprise Support Project (LENS), which has supported Mouawad in growing and developing her business, “Jordan’s beekeeping and honey production industry has great potential for growth, as many parts of the Kingdom are rich in plants which are great sources of nectar and pollen for bees. However, the industry is still considered in its infancy stage."

A USAID LENS research shows that most beekeepers in Jordan have received little or no formal training in beekeeping and honey production. They also lack adequate marketing and management skills in many aspects such as commercial beekeeping, marketing of bee products, training material and aids, quality control mechanisms, among others.

To improve her skills, she undertook the USAID LENS home-based businesses upgrade training, which aims to “develop the skills of the participants and upgrade their products to prepare them for market linkages and gives them exposure opportunities”, according to the USAID website.

She said the topic she found most useful was food safety “because many women food producers are unaware of it and therefore neglect it”.

“The hardest thing I went through during my journey was being a woman, the rest was doable,” Mouawad stressed, adding “of course, things eventually became easier but it was hard at first because, 15 years ago, it was difficult for a woman to work.”

She is now taking it upon herself to help fellow woman beekeepers by working with interns who find her through the Agriculture Ministry. 

“I offer them the space and the bees and train them until they become independent beekeepers,” the businesswoman explained.

Dania Assaf, a graduate in biotechnology and genetic engineering, is one of Muawad’s trainees who found her through the ministry.

“My love for bees inspired me to work in this field. I looked for people who worked in beekeeping and, since there aren't many beekeepers around, most people recommended her,” Assaf remembered, adding “I loved it right away and have been enjoying it so much.”

“I’m so grateful that I found someone who accepted me when I didn’t have any previous experience or background in the field and taught me everything from A to Z. She truly considers me as her daughter,” she said, smiling, noting that Mouawad treats her as her own daughter who also works with her at the farm.

Mouawad underscored that “the most important thing is to focus on what you’re doing and put the time and effort you need to excel. Each person should focus on what they do best and they will receive support from their family and the people around them, just like I did”.

The beekeeper insisted that “it's not just about work, it is also about innovation. Myself for instance, I always try to learn and see new things to develop myself. How can I grow if I don’t take workshops to learn new business skills?”

“A woman should always have willpower when she starts working. If you fail, you need to try again: failure doesn’t mean you should give up and cry; failure should push you to move forward,” the businesswoman insisted, voicing her tremendous happiness to see her product exported to other countries. 

“I honestly cannot describe how good it felt to be working and bringing income into my home to help cover expenses which really burdened us back then,” Mouawad rejoiced.

USAID LENS also helped in establishing the Jordanian Beekeepers Association in the northern part of Jordan, aiming to formalise work in the sector and therefore solve many problems including pesticide toxicity to bees, regulating and testing the production of honey, and ending honey laundering scams, according to its website.

It further developed a manual to introduce and diffuse best practices in beekeeping and conducted training programmes for over 600 medium and small entreprises across Irbid, Zarqa and Amman governorates.

AMMAN — The Goodwill Campaign, implemented by the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development (JOHUD), on Tuesday offered several scholarships to university students in Hittin camp in Zarqa Governorate, according to a JOHUD statement.

Goodwill also provided support to a number of women in the area to help them establish their own “home-based business start-ups”, and distributed food parcels to 800 families in the camp. 

The aid reflects the campaign’s efforts in enhancing the living conditions of underprivileged families across the Kingdom and in helping them establish income-generating projects, in addition to helping the youth to pursue higher education degrees.

During the distributions conducted at the Palestinian camp, HRH Princess Basma, president of the Goodwill Campaign's higher committee, stressed the campaign's keenness on providing help and support to families through its various programmes, which contribute to fostering social and human development.

Princess Basma also visited the headquarter of a women’s association named "Kanz Hasanat", where she was briefed on the initiatives conducted by these women which aim to improve the social and developmental situation of the camp. 

For his part, president of the services committee at Hittin camp, Saleh Husni Abdulaziz, displayed the objectives of the committee and the services it provides to the families in the camp.

Princess Basma commended Goodwill's partnerships with the various national institutions, which empower the campaign to achieve its "humanitarian and noble mission" and contribute to instilling the values of social solidarity among society members.

She also praised the efforts of the campaign's higher committee and their role in achieving its goals. 

AZRAQ — Being born in Jordan’s refugee camps, many young Syrians have never had the chance to experience many common life experiences such as going on an elevator or riding a horse.

The school bus project launched by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Azraq refugee camp in February 2017 has given these children the unique chance to enjoy a seemingly commonplace action: riding a bus.

"At the beginning, the kids were really excited, rushing to get into the bus first," recalled Laura Sisniega, communication officer at IOM Jordan, adding "now the euphoria has calmed down a little, but they are still very happy and proud to go on the school bus."

The UNICEF funded buses started touring the alleys of Azraq camp to mitigate the protection factors facing young children going to school, such as extreme weather, long walking distances or safety concerns, according to Paul Khaoya, IOM support officer, who said that "it also helped in reducing the number of school drop outs as it is much easier for kids to get to school on a daily basis".

One of Jordan's largest Syrian refugee camps, Azraq currently hosts 36,883 people, 59.02 per cent of whom are children, according to the UNHCR Azraq Refugee Camp factsheet published in April 2018.

"I live in the furthest caravan from my school, which is almost 1km away. In winter when it is really cold and in summer when it gets very hot like right now, it used to be very hard walking all the way there. I used to walk alone even sometimes," recalled fifth grader Heyam. 

"My mother heard about the bus project from CARE International so she went to the community centre to ask about it and registered me, my three sisters and my two brothers," she told The Jordan Times on the bus taking her back home, adding "I am very happy now because I am never late to school anymore and I can arrive at school fresh and not tired."

The big bus, which can carry up to 50 students, goes around the village to pick up students gathered at the water tank — which serves as the assembly point — before dropping the girls at the early shift starting at 8am. Once the girls finish, they are dropped home and the buses go on to pick up the boys for the afternoon shift.

"We have 30 buses going around the villages, which pick up some 7,500 students, including 60 children with disabilities," said Alaa Al Hasan, IOM project assistant, noting that "only students who registered with the project can enter the bus, as we monitor their presence on board through cards that they have to carry with them every school day".

In order to avoid students as young as five years old waiting in the sun, the 30 buses are constantly driving between the camp's seven schools, dropping children at shaded bus stops near their homes.

Supervising the students alongside members of the IOM team are 102 "escorts", all Syrian incentive based volunteers (IBVs) who underwent a comprehensive training on prevention of abuse, code of conduct, safeguarding rules, and inclusion, among others.

"This training is extremely important as some volunteers didn’t know how to deal with kids, or how to follow proper safeguarding policies," said Fathi, one of the lead escorts, who started working with the project from its onset in February 2017.

The escorts also learn how to use the reading tablets used to identify the students' badges as they enter the bus, a technology that helps both monitor and ensure the safety of the children.

Fathi now helps organise and train the new IBVs, whom he said "benefit from this cash-for-work opportunity", in addition to "making the camp a safer place for children" like his three daughters.

They all take the bus on a daily basis and "he is very pleased with that", he told The Jordan Times, adding "compared to the number of students dropping out before the bus existed, we have noticed a much higher attendance in school, which is a great achievement."

"These students really gained something more than a ride home with this project. They improved their quality of life, their education and got to experience something that they saw as 'extraordinary' by riding those large scale buses," Sisniega concluded, as young children compared their own badges with her IOM official card.

AMMAN — Over 400 Syrian women have been trained on human rights and gender through the four Women Leadership Councils (WLCs) established by CARE International over the past year in the governorates of Amman, Zarqa, Irbid and Mafraq, aiming to support Syrian women and girls in Jordan in achieving “effective engagement” with their local communities. 

“Based on CARE’s belief in the need to establish partnerships in all aspects of life, our objective was to integrate Syrian women into the Jordanian society,” the NGO explained in a statement issued last Monday, adding that the WLCs also helped participants in “enhancing their ability to deal with the isolation and depression they may be facing after leaving their homes, in addition to the consequences of sexual and gender-based violence (GBV) and their engagement with working environments that are not safe enough for them”.

“When I was first contacted by CARE, I remember being so excited because I felt like my voice was going somewhere and I was actually using the intellect that I worked hard for over the years to help people, like I always did,” said Rana, a former lawyer and Syrian refugee member of the WLC in Amman.

She explained that the team “works closely with women to teach them all kinds of things, from literacy courses in English to GBV awareness and legal advice”. 

“We had many sessions about the issue of early and forced child marriage and, right after the first session, girls started asking us for more information like reasons why they shouldn’t get married at an early age, and how to use effective arguments to change the minds of their parents or caretakers,” Rana recalled, expressing her joy over “being able to make a change in the mindset of the young girls, by being the lawyer who had an impact back in Syria”.

The initiative started in 2017, when CARE International selected a total of 48 Syrian women and girls to train them on ways to start the change within their communities. With 12 leaders per governorate, intensive training and workshops were implemented on topics such as leadership skills, communication, human rights, gender, conflict resolution and women's empowerment — and now, beneficiaries are seeing the results. 

“When CARE called me and asked me if I’d like to be interviewed for a spot in the WLC, I had my doubts,” Syrian refugee Yasmin recounted, remembering how she went to the interviewer and told her that “they must have gotten something wrong”, as she did not have “a proper education”.

“But she reassured me saying that this isn’t about education, but about leadership,” Yasmin remembered, elaborating on how the initiative has changed her. “I can visibly see a difference in myself, my personality, and the way I deal with people and situations,” she said, adding “my role in the WLC is to ensure that the voices of women — especially Syrians — are heard by organisations and stakeholders. We also listen to people in general and note down their challenges so that we can, in turn, formulate them in a better way and present them to organisations.”

Up to this point, the WLC project resulted in the implementation of 8 community initiatives, according to CARE International sources, who noted that the initiatives were “based on meaningful topics such as combating early marriage, enhancing the role of women and educating the beneficiaries on public safety standards, in addition to teaching English and Arabic and enhancing the positive outlook for the future”.

AMMAN — A regional conference on tax justice in the Arab region on Wednesday concluded in Amman, witnessing the attendance of a number of experts in economic and tax policies and Arab civil society organisations, a statement by the organisers said. 

The regional conference, which ran for two days, was organised by the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND), Phenix Centre for Economic and Informatics Studies, and the Jordanian Women’s Union.

In the opening session, ANND’s Executive Director Ziad Abdel Samad said that the Network had launched a programme to conduct analytical and field studies with a special focus on gender discrimination, in countries including Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine, in addition to Tunisia and Morocco. 

"The studies aim to highlight challenges faced by tax systems in achieving proper development and fair distribution of wealth, with a regional approach focusing on common issues related to equality in tax systems in those countries," he said, noting that "the studies put an emphasis on clear and apparent commonalities in the mechanisms of gender bias in tax systems".

President of the Jordanian Women’s Union Amneh Al Zu’bi indicated that the regional conference covered issues related to tax systems in several Arab countries, based on tax justice standards, the statement said.

He said the event focused on the role that could be played by civil society organisations to contribute to developing fair social and economic policies and achieve social stability and equality. 

For his part, Phenix Centre Director Ahmad Awad said the participants discussed tax policies in the region and their structural and fiscal shortcomings, which prevent the establishment of social and economic rights. 

"Despite the events in the region in the context of the Arab Spring, the majority of countries are still applying the same economic policies, including tax policies, which had led to the exacerbation of social divisions and saw Arab peoples take to the streets in protest of the setbacks that prevented the enjoyment of their social and economic rights," Awad pointed out, noting that Jordan has been witnessing a "heated debate" on the new income tax bill, which was approved by the government on Monday, the statement continued. 

The studies, which were presented at the conference, showed that taxation policies in the Arab world suffer from clear structural and financial shortcomings, which stand in the way of achieving the core objectives of taxation. 

These systems generally aim to reduce tax burdens on companies and increase them on consumers, through value added taxes, or to provide concessions and tax exemptions. Tax systems in the region are also characterised by weak tax collection and by tax evasion, which is partially related to the low capacity of related institutions and the growth of the informal economy for reasons related to “open” market policies, neoliberal globalisation, the youth bulge, rural to urban migration, and large waves of immigration, in addition to the nature of rentier economies, the statement read.

The participants highlighted the basic need for a qualitative shift in tax systems in Arab countries to achieve four concomitant main functions: redistribution to achieve justice among citizens; stimulating economic activity and contributing to directing investments; providing local financial resources for development and the public budget; and enhancing citizenship. 

AMMAN — Deputising for His Majesty King Abdullah, HRH Crown Prince Hussein on Wednesday inaugurated a photovoltaic power station at King’s Academy, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The station, with a capacity of 2.6 megawatts, was designed and built by ACWA Power, a Saudi Arabian company specialised in developing and operating power generation and water desalination facilities.

The new station will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 2,300 tonnes, in addition to providing electricity for 350 housing units, according to Petra. John Austin, the academy’s headmaster, briefed the Crown Prince on the phases of implementing the project, which is in line with the academy’s plans to reduce costs, improve the capabilities and skills of its students, and increase the number of scholarships.