Dissident Veteran For Peace

At bottom is an eyewitness report of an anti-Zionist demonstration in Amman, Jordan--one of America's "moderate Arab allies"--on Aug. 4th. It comes from the Arab Nationalist Yahoo Group via a friend. The demonstration was also mentioned in Deutsche Presse-Agentur and Associated Press reports.

From the DPA's "Demos sweep Muslim countries against Israeli offensive":

In Jordan security men used force to disperse about 500 demonstrators who gathered after Friday prayers, according to one of the participating activists.

'Policemen arrested 10 of the participants and beat demonstrators with sticks to prevent them from reaching the Israeli embassy,' Maysara Malas, member of the Freedoms Committee of the Jordanian trade unions told reporters.

Demonstrators chanted slogans demanding the dismissal of the Israeli ambassador in Jordan in retaliation for the continued 'Israeli aggression on Lebanon and Palestine.'

From the AP's "Arab anger rising over Lebanon war":

Ten people were arrested and four injured, including two police, when demonstrators clashed with officers in Amman, Jordan. Police had to use batons to stop a crowd of about 200, some waving Hezbollah flags, from marching from their mosque to the Israeli embassy after noon prayers.

From the eyewitness report mentioned above:

Date: Sun, 06 Aug 2006 18:06:10 +0000

A Report on what happened on Friday, 4 August 2006 by the al-Kaluti Mosque in Amman, Jordan.

By Dr. Ibrahim Alloush.
Translated by Muhammad Abu Nasr

(Note: this report is generally objective although it contains some political observations. It is basically intended as a response to the official version of what happened at the demonstration for the media, organizations and individuals concerned with keeping track of violations of human rights in Jordan. We request that this be circulated.)

After the Imam of the mosque concluded the Friday prayer service, the worshippers left al-Kaluti mosque, which is located near the Zionist embassy in the ar-Rabiyah district of Amman. Suddenly a slogan was shouted: "ar-Rabiyah needs to be liberated from Zionist filth. No embassy and no ambassador. Get out, miserable thing. No Zionist embassy on Arab land!"

After that there gathered together a number of worshippers and people in the street, numbering 200 according to the Jordanian Public Security account and 500 according to some media reports – this is not a large number, of course but the area in which the demonstration took place is a district that is well guarded by security forces and there had been no demonstration there for several years. Therefore, more than a residential area, it was closer to being a “red line” that the regime had drawn, which the Jordanian public was not to cross. In addition this was not a demonstration by a political party or trade union. It was the result of efforts made by a handful of independent activists and people of conscience who could no longer keep silent over the presence of a Zionist embassy and peace treaty and security coordination with the Zionist enemy while this enemy continues to commit the most vicious crimes against us, the Arab people in Lebanon and Palestine (Note that we are one Arab people, not "Arab peoples" as some like to say. This is an important point because terminology is a part of the battle).

Anyway, chants went up in support of the Iraqi, Lebanese, and Palestinian resistance and against sectarianism ("No Sunnah, no Shi'ah, one homeland we won't sell out!"), and of course against the Zionist-American enemy, and for the unity of the Arab resistance everywhere. The orientation of the slogans was Arab nationalist, for resistance, and radical and "not usual in demonstrations for which there is a permit" as a plain-clothed officer told one of the arrested demonstrators later.

The demonstration lasted a little over an hour. It was impossible to advance more than a few steps in the direction of the Zionist embassy because of the relatively small number of demonstrators and the heavy presence of security forces, well armed and backed up with vehicles and police cars. Later the Riot Police began to encircle the demonstrators from the east as well – the embassy was to the west of the demonstration – and contrary to what the official account by the security forces said, it was the security forces and their vehicles not the demonstrators that prevented traffic from moving through the intersection to the west. The demonstrators remained boxed in just a few meters from the al-Kaluti mosque while security forces occupied the intersection and the main streets.

After the security forces began to encircle the demonstrators some of the demonstrators began gradually to withdraw in order to forestall the final blow, that is the orgy of blind violence and mass arrests that was clearly about to happen. Then some of the demonstrators declared the demonstration to be over, since it had attained its aim of expressing the opinion, even in a demonstration without a permit, and declaring the position of opposition to the presence of a Zionist embassy in Jordan and for the Arab resistance in Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine even if that be in defiance of a regulation on public meetings that tramples the right to demonstrate that is guaranteed by the Jordanian constitution.

The remaining demonstrators began to break up in groups, their vanguard departing towards the south, which was the only apparent open route not blocked by the security forces. But security forces surrounded those who were leaving – who were leaving in a calm and peaceful manner – and prevented them from departing. They then began to attack and beat them violently with batons as they were departing in the opposite direction from the Zionist embassy. Wounded at this point – the first of those who were wounded – were a number of activists in the Arab Nationalist list, including Ahmad ar-Ramhi whose left elbow was broken in addition to suffering other bruises on various parts of his body. Also wounded was Amer Jubran who was struck several times in various parts of his body, particularly his head as he tried to help the writer of these lines who, for his part, was attacked by a baton causing him to bleed from his head. Amer Jubrah joked that the blows to his head did not
cause bleeding because "his family came from al-Khalil."

Thus the general assault began on the demonstrators who were departing peacefully. There were confrontations and the security people pursued demonstrators into side streets and lanes. Dozens of participants in the demonstration and also passers by in the street were severely beaten and arrested. This was in addition to those who were beaten but escaped arrest. Women too were violently beaten and arrested. Young girls were not spared the violence either, as all those who remained in the square to the end were able to see. Unfortunately the security men confiscated and destroyed the cassette that a correspondent of Abu Dhabi TV had recorded showing some of the ferocious violence practiced by the security men.

The writer of these lines personally witnessed barbaric attacks on youngsters. A group of Riot Police with batons attacked a teenager no more than about 15 years old. Some of those youths very definitely put up resistance, but the least one might say of it was that it was legitimate, but unequal to the attack to which they were being subjected. .One security man admitted to the writer of these lines, after his arrest, that the demonstrators at the rear, as he put it, attacked the security men after those of us in front had been attacked. That claim, if true, confirms that the demonstrators were not the first to attack. What really happened, contrary to the claims of the official version, was the that attack was general and directed against everyone at one time, with only a slight difference between when the first and last were attacked. It began with us – the writer of these lines, Amer Jubran, and Ahmad ar-Ramhi specifically, and some of the other demonstrators who were attacked defended themselves against absolutely inexcusable violence against themselves and their brothers and sisters as they tried to depart calmly and peacefully.

If the reader had seen the helmeted security men with shields and batons attacking young girls not yet 12 years old who had come with their families to express solidarity with the Lebanese resistance and to reject the Zionist embassy that is polluting Jordanian soil, he would probably not be able to contain himself either. So when the official version says that there were wounded among the security men, it does not say, for example that one of those was a plain-clothes officer who was hitting the mother and sister of one of the young girls, and that the young girl then rushed at the officer and pushed him, knocking him head-first to the pavement! The official version does not say that among those who were arrested and later bailed out were seven or eight women and girls some of them under the age of 16. It does not say how many women were wounded, crushed, and bruised. That version says nothing about the school students who were attacked by Riot Police and whose pride won't let them get unjustifiably beaten. Yes, there was violence but it was of two types: first, frantic violence against the human dignity inflicted by the security men; and then a much lower level of violence in defense of human dignity some of which was inflicted by teenaged boys and girls who had not been taught by these degraded Arab times to bury their dignity and boundless love for their nation in the grave of petty personal interests.

If not for concern for those who escaped arrest we would include here their names, ages, and stories. But we must keep in mind that most of those who were arrested and released on bail will have to appear in court for proceedings against them on Sunday, 6 August 2006. This is something that we all must follow with our solidarity and encouragement if the public prosecutor does not drop the cases against them. At that time we will publish in many languages the stories of those prisoners and their names and the violations committed against them, in particular the languages of the states that tie their foreign aid to recipient countries' human rights records. Translation is an easy matter.

My personal story.

Mr. Hani ad-Dahleh, President of the Arab Organization for Human Rights in Jordan asked me to write down what happened to me personally so that it can be kept in the records of the organization for legal purposes. I am undertaking that below, aware that it is only a part of the picture and cannot be separated from the whole story of what happened to all the demonstrators in front of the al-Kaluti mosque on Friday 4 August 2006, nor from the overarching phenomenon that we must all melt into, the phenomenon of Arab resistance.

After we tried peacefully to withdraw from the area that the Riot Police had closed off in the opposite direction from the Zionist embassy, we changed direction when we were prevented from going out along that route. The orgy of club beatings suddenly began from behind as we tried to move away. At that point the elbow of Ahmad ar-Ramhi was broken and he fell on his back and suffered various blows. I fell forward to the pavement after I was cracked in the head and received various blows. Amer Jubran and other brothers were violently beaten as they tried to help us. When I got up I was punched again though I was bleeding freely. Amer Jubran was arrested after that and beaten and insulted all the way to the police car, as he told me later.

Some brothers managed to pull us outside the ring where the orgy of beating had begun for those remaining demonstrators. Two of the brothers from the Arab Nationalist list and Dr. Riyad an-Nuwayisah took me to the opposite sidewalk outside the security cordon about 30 meters from the original place of the demonstration. Ahmad left on foot with some others after taking my picture with blood on my head and face that some of you might have seen on the Arab Nationalist list. I was talking on my cell phone at the time with the correspondent of al-Jazeera satellite TV to get him immediately to come and film what was going on since he had left just a few minutes before the attack on us began.

One of the brothers who had remained with us went to summon a car to take us to the hospital, but suddenly a group of security men came to arrest Dr.. Riyad an-Nuwayisah. They grabbed him as I latched on to him, and then I felt strange hands clutching me too. Dr. Riyad and I were arrested as we stood completely peacefully. Brothers who were standing with us were clubbed and driven away. They still have the contusions and bruises from that attack, but they were not arrested. It was therefore clear that there had been an order to arrest Dr. Riyad and me, for this was an intentional act directed at us, particularly so, inasmuch as we were standing outside the cordon inside which the attacks and pursuits of the demonstrators were taking place – even though we were not far from there. The security men pushed him and then me to walk towards the security vehicles parked to the north on the road that leads to the Zionist embassy. First they put Dr. Riyad and then they put me next to Amer Jubran in the back seat of the police car in which he was. Amer tried to demand that we be taken to the hospital but to no avail. At that time the pursuits and attacks were still going on with full force, their scope extending to the side streets and lanes around the area.

They then took us to the ash-Shamisani police station where they sat Dr. Riyad, Amer and me together side-by-side on a small wooden bench in the corner near a small steel cage of about two meters by two meters. Very soon four prisoners brought in from the demonstration were put into the cage. Bruises from beatings were readily apparent on their faces. I heard one of them reply "15 years old" in answer to an officer who asked him his age. Another said that he was 16. The third was a student in the first year at university. The fourth was a schoolteacher who was a fresh graduate of university. The last was beaten inside the cage because he took a cell phone out of his pocket and tried to use it to call his family to come and bail him out.

Although the officers in ash-Shamisani Police Station in general treated us with courtesy and kindness, and although we were not subjected to abuse or further beatings beyond those received at the incident in front of al-Kaluti Mosque, and although they brought us water to drink, we were compelled to remain seated for more than an hour on that small wooden bench. We kept asking to be taken to the hospital until the officer in charge of the security station ordered that to be done. In fact Amer and I were taken by a Public Security car to the al-Bashir Hospital where our heads were X-rayed and my bleeding head was attended to. We were then brought back to the ash-Shamisani Police Station where we found that Dr. Riyad had been released on bail. Amer and I were then released without charges being filed against us and without bail and without being asked to check in with the authorities concerned as happened to the others who were arrested. Before we left the police station, a calm talk took place between us and the officers concerning what had taken place and who was responsible for it. We left the police station at about 5pm.

In conclusion I would like to thank all those who expressed solidarity with us and contacted or visited or sent messages. Their stance had its effect, not only on the personal level but on the political level as well. Solidarity is a political act in itself. There is no doubt that it lessens arbitrary measures taken against prisoners and improves the treatment they receive. Yet we cannot forget that ultimately the aim of this solidarity remains the support of the cause for which the prisoners were imprisoned, and in this case that cause is rejection of the Zionist embassy on Jordanian soil and declaring total support for the Arab resistance in Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine. For human rights have no value if the nation itself is denied its rights. The individual’s rights mean nothing when the rights of countries are violated. Let everyone know that no repression nor any martial law will prevent us from resisting the Zionist infiltration into our countries. What we have done and will do along these lines doesn’t equal a grain of sand compared to what the Arab resistance is doing in Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine.. There is still a great deal that needs to be done. We pledge to carry on, regardless of the price. Inconsequential is any price that we might pay in service of the homeland.

Arabic original:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/arab_nationalist/message/33422
Message 33422 on Arab Nationalist list [This is a members only list]

Labels: Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, repression, resistance, War