JORDAN FLAYS DUTCH POLITICIAN

The Foreign Relations Committee at the Jordanian upper house of Parliament on June 21 rebuked leader of a Dutch far-right political party for proposing the establishment of an alternative homeland for Palestinians in Jordan. “This strange attitude represents an encroachment on internal law and conventions as well as a flagrant aggression on the sovereignty and independence of Jordan, a member of the United Nations,” said the Committee’s Chairman, Marouf Bakheet. Geert Wilders, who leads Holland’s extremist Party for Freedom (PVV), said last week that he believed Jordan should be renamed Palestine. “Jordan is Palestine,” he said, adding, “Changing its name to Palestine will end the conflict in the Middle East and provide the Palestinians with an alternate homeland,” said Wilders. His remarks drew sharp reactions in the Arab and Muslim worlds, foremost Jordan, where he appeared to have adopted an extremist Israeli scheme, which seeks to establish homeland for Palestinians in the Hashemite Kingdom.