Following the attack on the Jewish seminary that resulted in the death of 8 Israelis, the gunman’s relatives in Jordan set up a mourning tent as is common in the country, in his honor. The state decided to shut the whole thing down.
Not only does this contradict any position the country took towards “urging” Israel to stop its massacre of Gazans, which left over a hundred dead in only a few days, but it turns out Israel itself allowed the gunman’s family in occupied East Jerusalem to carry out its own mourning rites, including the hanging of Hizballah and Hamas flags outside their homes, the latter of which alone can get you into trouble in Jordan, let alone a funeral!!
Just as ironic: even Zarqawi, who carried out terrorist bombings on Jordanian soil and murdered its citizens, was allowed to have a funeral.
I have to say, the state is really treading a fine line these days. Jordanians are already at unprecedented levels of frustration with everything that’s going on around them, both locally (economically) and regionally (conflict). A move like this is akin to poking the caged tiger in the eye; it won’t be a pretty scene when he (inevitably) gets out.
I guess when israel allowed the family to mourn and hang flags they were thinking about something else other than freedom of speech, don’t you think? I won’t oversimplify any action taken by them to pure freedom of speech since you know there is something called freedom of movement that comes before(Which is not granted).
But I guess our government messed up this time, they thought they will get bad coverage, but they forgot that the israelies were “cool” with that happenning in their own backyard.
Anywho, do you know the term “بلاخم”? This is exactly what the government is doing: بلاخمو
and everyone except el manar were silent about it, not ammonnews and of course not radio el balad, they gave up already?
anyway, i agree, what will come next is definitely unpredictable but for sure this political stream line has crossed everyones tolerance levels.
OK, pls delete my previous remark. It is too much for JO. I realize that.
Seriously the government is playing a dangerous game, between taxes, the removal of subsidies, the regional situation, the rise of corrupt business interests in the state and the increasingly suffocating feeling that one is not even allowed to say anything about the situation (ATV, radio el balad etc….). People’s frustrations will have to be released somehow.
I doubt if Jordan allowed mourners tents for the terrorists that killed 57 other people at the Radisson SAS, Grand Hyatt and Days Inn hotels,so why allow mourners tents for the Palestinian terrorist who killed the teenagers at the library at Jerusalem yeshiva.
Remember the images on CNN of the Arabs in Beirut and Gaza etc ..celebrating the deaths of Americans on 9/11…so I understand Jordan’s position on this closing of the mourners tent of the terrorist’s family .Not only was It the right thing to do,but to allow it would be bad for investment,bad for tourism and bad for Jordan’s image
So, do you think we’re having our revolution anytime soon?
Three words:
ha ha ha.
Abdul, Gaza already had marches to celebrate, and many Israelis responded to the march by comparing it to the post 911 celebrations, and saying: “You see ? we were right about them.”
Of course hundreds have died in Gaza and only 8 in Jerusalem, but this is bad for everyone. It means the massacre will not only continue, but be accelerated.
Add the Jordanian hypocirsy to the long list of world wide hypocrisy and you will not be so surprised. The media coverage of the Mercaz was 10 times that of Gaza, and these were not teenagers. But if the age game is to be played more than triple the number was of children in Gaza who were killed by trained professionals with state of the art weapons
I know elevate the evaluation from “بلاخمو” to dangerous diplomacy.
The Jordanian revolution is coming…trust me.
3aib
I have a question, seriously.
Who in Jordan makes that kind of decision? Is it the minister of interior? the Mukhabarat? the Royal Court?
I know our civil liberties history is not great, but this time it has gone too far. It is shameful!
The government has allowed also mourning rituals for Al Banna who killed 150 Iraqis and Al Absi who caused the mayhem in Nahr Al bared and then it was revealed he was not even dead. I guess the value of Israeli lives are more than Iraqi and Lebaneses lives as well.
Iam relly sick and tired of few morons that controlled our country,the economy is in shamble ,inflation at all time high, external debts is quadrupling as we speak and the service on ill planned government external loans are increasing by second ,pollution is killing us (not;Jordan has one of the highest cancer cases in the world) free press is not existent(each Major news dailies paper has a government minder whose jobs is to monitor each and every word is written for the public consumption ,unemployment is between 25 to 30 percent,our foreign policy had been decided by the few that will never be given the right to be debated in the parliament let alone the public.
it is really bleak and grime reality that we are facing ,it time for people to rule and decide for themselves ,don’t agree?????Long live the People!
I can’t even say that comment…
Thank you Mohanned & Qwaider you said it all..
I think it was a miscalculated move on the part of whoever made the decision.
Sadly, I do not blame this on hypocrisy, but I blame it on weakness.
Had the victims of the Amman attacks had a strong government backing them like the US is backing Israelies our government would not have allowed a mourning house for Zarqawi. Had the victims of bombings in Iraq carried out by Jordanian militants been supported by the US our government would not have allowed the people to mourn for them either.
It’s not hypocricy, it’s our government weakness vs. the strength of others.
Our government is weak against the Israelies. Against us, it is not!
The only thing worse than the actions of the government are the comments of the apologists here, there and everywhere. Whoever suggests that the government (yeah right! what government?) “bitlakhem” i.e taking uncalcalted, clumsy moves is adding to this tradgedy, we need to accept the facts, these actions are very much calculated, they know exactly what they want to say, and its being said loud and clear ….now can you, avergae joe and jane, hear it?
Its hilarious, kinda like committing murder and then claiming insanity, only thing insane people get put in a madhouse…..but noooooo not in Joooooooordan , we make excuses for the madmen……..long live the insanity
Now that I had some tea and lost my sense of sarcasm, I would like to ask a more serious question, what are the indicators that the people are fed up and as you put it:
“Jordanians are already at unprecedented levels of frustration with everything that’s going on around them, both locally (economically) and regionally (conflict). A move like this is akin to poking the caged tiger in the eye; it won’t be a pretty scene when he (inevitably) gets out”
Obviously they are, but they have been for decades , whats new now, what would make them react today, I just dont see anything coming, a little steam-off would deflate the situation sometime soon, or maybe a sharade or a distraction the same tools that have always been implemented for chaos control….
Markus: I’m not saying that there will be an immediate reaction, today, as you put it. but this sort of thing is inevitable in the history of all people; including ours. moreover, to compare today’s frustrations to that of 10 or 20 years ago is not a fair comparison. the things that have gotten better have become so only for the few elite and wealthy strata of society. the rest are suffering as ever, if not more than ever before (in my opinion). a 10 minute conversation with any average Jordanian who is over 50 will confirm this.
the same tools that have been implemented for chaos control are still being used but they will inevitably become obsolete, as they are growingly archaic. the latest in this move is to essentially pay off everyone in the public sector (primarily the armed forces), all of whom make up any support base the status quo has. these financial means are signs of a last resort, when all other methods have faltered.
as in the history of all authoritarian regimes, there are always inevitably two choices for the state: to reform or to die out. i’m not saying it’s today or tomorrow or even in the next decade. i’m saying, it’s inevitable.
Nas,
Totally agree, actually its my fault for not being clear enough, what i meant to do was to direct my criticism to the people for being as docile as ever. I did not intend to compare todays situation with the situation 10 or 20 years ago, i agree that it is just as bad, actualli believe its worse for may reasons.
What are people waiting for? their political, economical, social and even intellectual freedoms are being raped and pillaged on a daily basis!
Nas I like your optimism, my problem is, I have lost faith in the will of our people, and I begin by blaming myself here, in case anyone wants to pull out the holier than though card..im pre-empting…
Markus,
My suggestion: Keep drinking tea.
Mohanned demonstrates why there is no hope, we always revert to belittling each other, do you have anything worth discussing? I might not be as all knowing as you are so why dont you try to educate me?
Shoot, I though I was your Obama.
By the way your response is a manifistation of how cynical, pessimestic, and defensive/offensive you are, you could have considered my suggestion as a compliment but you chose to consider it as, I don’t know, you say it!
As for educating you, I am no scholar, but the tools are out there, feel free to educate yourself, but watch out for something called self educated arrogants, as I face many of them regularly.
Take it easy!
Turns out the whole story is not true!
http://www.ammonnews.net/arabicDemo/article.php?articleID=19992
Actually Mohanned I did think about taking your comment positively but knowing you from your comments on this blog on other posts, I figured you must mean it exactly the way I took it, not only do you belittle the views u disagree with, but now you revert to know me personally….
Have some tea yourself and start living in the present, the past is gone and wont be coming back anytime soon,
Hamzeh I know the the Shaheed’s cousin and they were in fact asked to shut it down….this is what I call chaos control…
I do drink tea as soon as I wake up, with merameyyeh, the aroma is very effective in setting the mood 🙂
As for living the present, I think that here you are starting to mix things up. If you look at your comments you will obviously see that you are the one living in the past! As for me, I live my present for the future, you know, I try to use the present for defining my future.
And finally you agreed with my first comment when you admitaddly said it is “chaos control” 😛
Again, when I say something keep in mind that your screen name is not always running in the back of my head.
Salam
I’m glad you are able to tell the truth in this case then. Unfortunately, not everyone knows the family in person.
yeah the story was somehow magically discovered not to be true several days after it surfaced and after all the controversy it generated .. HAHAHA how dumb do they think we are
one thing though .. the ammon article said ..
Ù†ÙÙ‰ عم الشهيد علاء ابودهيم منÙØ° العملية الاستشهادية ÙÙŠ القدس ان يكون منع من اقامة بيت عزاء لابن اخيه ÙÙŠ ØµÙˆÙŠÙ„Ø ÙƒÙ…Ø§ نشر Øزب جبهة العمل الاسلامي على موقعه الالكتروني
actually the story was published on a LOT of sites .. jazeera, alakhbar newspaper, jta (which nas has linked), etc.
for more see the following link ..
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=jordanian+security+forces+mourning+jerusalem+shooter+
please!!!
Powerful stuff! This episode strikes me as genuine as it gets and far from the usual hypocrisy and double standard we have grown accustomed to. I disagree with the analysis that claims that holding such mourning ceremonies are bad for investment and tourism. Lack of true democracy, consistency, and transparency is however. ” Never again” takes now a whole new meaning that is sadly confined to mourning tents.
Is the 31 comment by an Israeli ???
In answer to Maan Abu Nowar – a question – what is Israeli about what has been said? If the reference of “never again” has ruffled some feathers, it is worth remembering that the Palestinians have several holocausts of their own to claim, the most recent took place less than a week ago. The sad part is that in our case it is “again and again” and not “never again”. To answer your question, no I am not an Israeli. I am a very sad, proud, and utterly devastated Arab.