Jordan’s professional associations are close to the Muslim Brotherhood.
The movement has capitalized on the popularity of Hamas among Islamist militants in Jordan. Today, its members control virtually all the professional associations, whose main political goal is to oppose normalization of relations with Israel.
One of the associations’ specialities is backing for angry demonstrations. Here, for example, is Maysara Malas of the Jordan Engineers Association protesting police treatment of a mob that wanted to march on the Israeli embassy in Amman in 2009. They threw rocks at the police and carried “pictures of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, praising him for firing rockets into Israel during the 1991 Gulf War”.
Here is a picture of US and Israeli goods being burned at the same demonstration, in front of the Professional Associations building in Amman.
The associations and the Brotherhood have also been key supporters of the Viva Palestina convoys and lead organisers in Jordan. This picture shows a demonstration in Amman in support of Viva Palestina’s last land convoy. The green flag is the banner of the Islamic Action Front, the political wing of the Jordanian Brotherhood.
Well, here we go again. A Jordanian group is joining the latest Viva Palestina convoy. Its spokesman is Maysara Malas.
Malas said the Jordanian Lifeline convoy consists of 40 vehicles from Jordan and 12 vehicles from Arab Gulf countries with 138 supporters on board, 32 of them from Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait while the rest are from Jordan.
Maysara Malas
Malas also works closely with Hamas. On prisoners held by Israel, for example:
Top Hamas officials have vowed to include Jordanian prisoners in any future prisoner exchange agreement between the Islamist group and Israel, an activist said yesterday.
The promise was made by Hamas leader Khaled Mishaal during a meeting with activists from the professional associations, according to Maysara Malas, head of the national committee for prisoners in Israel.
“We received assurances from Mishaal that all Jordanian prisoners will be listed among detainees to be freed from Israeli jails in any upcoming prisoner exchange,” Malas told The Jordan Times.
Malas is a natural Hamas supporter. Consider this episode in 2008. When Jordan organised a summer festival, Islamists pounced:
A summer festival featuring popular Arab singers and international celebrities has drawn the ire of Jordanian political parties and Islamists over the alleged involvement of an advertising company that was reported to have organised Israel’s 60th anniversary celebrations this year.
Jordan’s professional associations, dominated by Islamists, have called for the musicians and stars to boycott the event.
But the ministry of tourism and the Jordan Tourism Board, the bodies overseeing the cultural event, deny they had solicited the co-operation of the French company, Publicis Groupe, a leading advertising and communication firm that has a presence in Israel. The company has also denied any involvement in the festival or that it organised Israel’s celebrations.
Never mind the facts. Malas wanted a fight. The problem? Not just a company that does business with Israel. No, it was those sneaky Jews, you see:
Maysara Malas, head of the freedoms public committee at the Jordan Engineering Association, said the unions were against the festival because of the involvement of Publicis Groupe.
“The government has asked Publicis Groupe, chaired by Maurice Levy, to guide them to other companies, which means that they have a role in the preparations of the Jordan Festival,” he said.
“The Jews have always had a role to provide guidance. And the artists they nominated have strong ties with the Zionists,” he alleged, in reference to some of the international singers.
King Abdullah was dismissive:
But Jordan’s King Abdullah II criticised the campaign against the festival, which he said was based on false information.
“Let us assume for a moment that it is in fact Publicis that is helping to organise the event. In fact, I cannot think of a major company that doesn’t do business with Israel. If all these companies are off limits, then we are in deep trouble,” King Abdullah told the Petra news agency on Tuesday.
“For example, Intel, whose chips power 80 per cent of computers around the world, has billions of dollars of investments in Israel. Its closest competitor, AMD, also has large investments in Israel. Does that mean we should throw our computers away? This is nonsense.
“If we follow this line of thought, then we will be doing the best service to Israel. All it has to do is use the best technology and best talent in the world and automatically it would be off-limits to us,” he said.
Malas would have none of this common sense. For he is an annihilationist:
“There will not be any normalisation with the Jewish state unless a Palestinian state is established from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea.”
Prisoners in Israel are not his only concern. Another in Jordan is important to him:
Malas called on the government to release Daqamseh, who is serving a life sentence and has 5 years left, “especially after all the threats the Zionist entity is constituting to the security and stability of Jordan.”
Ahmed Daqamseh is the Jordanian soldier who murdered seven Israeli schoolgirls in 1997.
What a fine partner Malas is for Viva Palestina.
