Jordanians on June 3 demonstrated in Amman and other major cities calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit’s government and the abrogation of a peace treaty with Israel. Hundreds of activists belonging to the Islamic-led opposition took to the streets after Friday prayers at the Grand Husseini Mosque in central Amman.
They raised placards and chanted slogans calling on Bakhit to resign, saying he had failed to carry out the needed political reforms, and for the dissolution of the lower house of parliament.
Protesters said they were marking the anniversary of the 1967 Middle East war, when Israel seized East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan. Among the slogans chanted were “No Israeli embassy on the Jordanian land,” “Reform is our path to the liberation of Jerusalem” and “the people want to liberate Palestine.”
In Tafileh, 180 kilometers south of Amman, more than 1,000 citizens demonstrated urging the downfall of Bakhit’s Cabinet as well as prompt punishment for those who were behind the flight from the country of the convicted businessman Khalid Shahin. Shahin was serving a three-year jail term after the State Security Court found him guilty of bribery in his bid to acquire a $1.2-billion contract for the expansion of the Jordan Petroleum Refinery. The authorities surprised the public opinion by allowing him to leave the country on Feb. 25 for medical treatment under the pretext his illness could not be treated locally.