Jordan targeting Gaza solidarity in largest arrest campaign in decades

Over the past two months, Jordan’s intelligence agency has detained and interrogated hundreds of people who have shown solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, in what is the largest arrest campaign to have taken place in the kingdom in decades.  

According to information obtained by Middle East Eye from multiple sources in Jordan, a widespread campaign led by the General Intelligence Department (GID) is targeting activists and anyone who has sent financial donations or other kinds of support to the victims of Israel’s war on Gaza. 

One detainee, who spoke to MEE on condition of anonymity, said: “The investigation was done purely for the sake of Israel. Jordan had nothing to do with it.”

A Jordanian political source, who also requested anonymity for security reasons, said that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were two other forces driving the arrest campaign, with Jordan hoping to get financial aid from Riyadh and Abu Dhabi in return. 

Those targeted are being arrested and interrogated without legal charges being brought against them.

According to multiple detainees, most of arrested are interrogated and then released without anyone knowing what has happened to them. 

Intelligence officers have, the sources said, threatened those they arrest and told them not to say anything about what has happened to them. They are told that if they do reveal anything, they will be re-arrested.

According to those arrested who spoke to MEE, the intelligence officers also told them not to say that their disappearance was due to their arrest.

Aside from the hundreds of people who have been arrested, others are told to voluntarily report for interrogation in daylight hours. At the end of the day, they are told to report back again the next day, with the process often continuing for several days.

According to multiple sources, most, if not all, of the detainees were interrogated about their solidarity with Gaza. The investigations focused on sending donations, financial support or in-kind aid to the war’s victims in the Palestinian enclave.  

Largest crackdown in decades

An arrest campaign of this size has not occurred in Jordan since the “democratic transition” of 1989, when King Hussein ended the state of emergency, which the government had used as a pretext for committing human rights violations, including extrajudicial arrests.

Alongside this new wave of arrests, there is a growing sense of anger among the Jordanian public. Hundreds of detainees are being held in intelligence prisons without access to the outside world, lawyers or trial.

Behind each detainee is a family, and sometimes a large tribe, upset about the disappearance of their loved one and the lack of information about them.

Last week, tribesmen from the city of Tafilah gathered and organised a sit-in near the intelligence headquarters in Amman to demand the release of 72-year-old Ahmed al-Zarqan, a former mayor of the southern Jordanian city. 

The event was unprecedented. Al-Zarqan is the deputy general supervisor of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was recently banned in the Hashemite kingdom.

Security forces arrested him in late April. To date, Zarqan has not been charged, referred to court, or allowed to contact a lawyer. His family has not been allowed to visit him.

Khaled al-Juhani, head of the Islamic Action Front bloc in the Jordanian parliament and another prominent political activist, was also arrested in April.

In September, the Islamic Action Front received 32 percent of the votes in Jordan’s parliamentary elections, winning 31 seats.

Hamza Bani Issa, a political activist, was arrested months ago for participating in peaceful demonstrations in solidarity with Gaza. His eyesight was impacted after he was severely beaten on the head. 

His story only came to light after his mother, Arwa al-Tal, broke her silence, recording a video statement in which she said that what had happened to her son set a “dangerous precedent”.

She said her son had lost his sight following the assault by security forces and that he was subsequently accused of assaulting them.

The ‘armed group’ making weapons for Palestine

In May, as part of the same campaign of arrests, Hamza Khader, the head of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign in Jordan, was arrested. He was detained for several weeks and then released after intelligence officers asked him to remain silent and not reveal what happened to him during his detention. 

In a further sign of the widespread targeting of opposition groups and political Islam in Jordan – which the Jordanian political source said was instigated by the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Israel – Jamil Abu Bakr, the 74-year-old deputy secretary-general of the Islamic Action Front was also detained for 48 hours and subjected to prolonged interrogation before being released.

The campaign of arrests followed the announcement in mid-April by the GID of the arrest of an “armed group” consisting of 16 individuals who were allegedly intending to provide support and assistance to Palestinian resistance groups in the occupied West Bank.

According to the intelligence report, three of these 16 individuals had established an underground missile factory in the Jordanian city of Zarqa, while three others intended to manufacture military drones. 

This story quickly became a popular topic of conversation among Jordanians, although many remained unconvinced.

The government was subsequently forced to issue a ban on publication or discussion of the case, whether in the media or on social media.

Several social media accounts made fun of the idea that three young men had established a missile factory in Jordan. One wrote: “This number is not enough to establish a popular cafe on the highway between Amman and Zarqa.” 

Others ridiculed the claim that three young men, including a university student in his twenties, were manufacturing drones for military purposes.