Jordanian protest group calls for more demonstrations against Gaza war, peace treaty with Israel

Activists in Jordan call for further protests after days of demonstrations that have brought thousands onto the streets against the war in Gaza and the country’s peace treaty with Israel.

Jordan, where nearly half the population is of Palestinian origin, has seen regular rallies in Amman and elsewhere in solidarity with Gaza since the October 7 Hamas terror onslaught and subsequent war in Gaza.

Recent protests have seen rare clashes between demonstrators and security forces in the capital and in Jordan’s largest Palestinian refugee camp.

The group Jordanian Youth Gathering urges people to return later Sunday to the Israeli embassy in Amman “to support the resistance in Gaza and demand the cancellation of the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty and cut all ties with Israel.”

In 1994, Jordan became the second Arab country, after Egypt in 1979, to sign a peace treaty with Israel.

“No to a Zionist embassy on Jordanian territory,” read one banner at Saturday’s embassy protest, where people have gathered every evening since the holy Muslim month of Ramadan began more than two weeks ago.

Security forces say they have arrested a number of protesters 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Amman at the Beqaa refugee camp.

Public security spokesman Amer Al-Sartaawi says in a statement that a “number of rioters” were arrested after “acts of rioting and vandalism, setting fires, and hurling stones at vehicles on the public road.”

A second statement says women were among an unspecified number of people arrested at a protest the previous night near the Israeli embassy who had also caused disturbances and “attempted to assault” security forces.