From the Liveblog of
Friday, May 21, 2021
Jordanians rally, burn Israeli flags to celebrate Gaza ‘victory of the resistance’
Thousands of people demonstrate in Jordan to celebrate the “victory of the resistance” against Israel, after a ceasefire between the Jewish state and Palestinian armed groups.
Responding to a call by the Muslim Brotherhood, some 10,000 people, according to AFP journalists, gathered in the Sweimeh region near the border with the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Demonstrators carried banners reading: “Jerusalem is the symbol of victory,” “congratulations on the victory of the resistance” and “the resilience of Gaza led to victory.”
Demonstrators carry Jordanian and Palestinian flags and chanted “death to Israel” and “let’s trade the olive branch for the gun.”
In Karameh, an area near the West Bank border, another few thousand demonstrators, many youths dressed in Jordanian and Palestinian keffiyeh scarves burned Israeli flags and chanted slogans against the peace deal.
Karameh is the site of a 1968 battle — fought a few months after the defeat of Arab states by Israel in 1967 — between a combined force of Palestinian fighters and Jordanian army soldiers against Israeli troops, and is symbolic across the Arab world.
In the capital, over 1,000 protesters set off on a march from the Al-Husseini Grand Mosque in central Amman after Friday prayers.
