The Jordanian government condemned Israel’s violations of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, citing recent raids into the site during the final days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when dozens of Palestinian worshipers and workers were assaulted by Israeli forces with rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas canisters, and beaten with batons. Jordanian Minister of State for Media Affairs Muhammad Momani called on Israel to immediately halt the unjustified violations, and to respect the status quo as an occupying power in the Palestinian territory, which includes East Jerusalem’s Old City where the mosque stands, Jordanian media quoted him as saying. Jordan, which runs the Waqf organization administering the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, has custodianship rights over Muslim holy places in Jerusalem under its 1994 peace treaty with Israel. Momani called on the international community to hold Israel accountable for their actions and to pressure Israel to comply with international conventions a...

Activists in Jordan have put the state “on trial” for a $15 billion gas deal it is aiming to conclude with Israel. Dozens of organizations — including trade unions and political parties — have gathered under the Jordanian Campaign to Stop the Zionist Gas Deal, a coalition that was formed in December by several popular movements that began campaigning against the proposed deal in early September last year. The deal is being negotiated by the state-owned National Electric Power Company and a consortium led by US giant Noble Energy. If implemented, it would involve the extraction of more than 300 million cubic meters of natural gas from the Israeli-controlled Leviathan gas field in the Mediterranean Sea. On 5 September, members of the public took the Jordanian government and the state-owned company to task at a popular tribunal. Among the charges considered were that the deal would involve funding Israeli terrorism, threaten Jordan’s national security and aid war crimes against Palest...

Jordan's tough stance towards Israel over Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque reflects a determination to preserve its custodianship of the flashpoint site as well as its own stability, analysts say. By recalling its ambassador to Israel, the Hashemite kingdom sent a message that deploying police inside the mosque compound had crossed a red line and put their diplomatic ties in jeopardy. In parallel, Jordan's King Abdullah II hosted a diplomatic push which brought together US Secretary of State John Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks in Amman on Thursday. "Recalling the Jordanian ambassador and the diplomatic push sent a tough message to Israel that violating Al-Aqsa would endanger the peace treaty," Oraib Rantawi, head of Amman's Al-Quds Center for Political Studies, told AFP. Kerry would not have interrupted his busy schedule and flown to the region "unless Washington realized that ties were deteriorating between Jordan and Israel...

Jordan on Wednesday recalled its ambassador to Israel in protest against what it described as Israeli "violations" in Jerusalem and its holy sites, the Jordanian state news agency reported. The decision to recall Walid Obeidat was taken "in protest at the increasing and unprecedented Israeli escalation in the Noble Sanctuary, and the repeated Israeli violations of Jerusalem", the news agency said. At a joint press conference held in Paris with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judah said his country's recall of its ambassador to Israel was "an indication of seriousness of situation... We have sent repeated messages to Israel... .that Jerusalem is a red line." Also, Jordan's Minister of Information, Mohammed al-Momani said: “It is impossible to keep quiet about what happened today. Approximately 200 members of Israel’s security forces broke into Al-Aqsa Mosque, chased worshippers, caused damage and broke doors...

Jordan requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss Israeli plans to build more illegal Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem, diplomats said. The request followed a letter from Palestinian representative to the United Nations Riyadh Mansour calling for a urgent meeting to "address this crisis situation in occupied East Jerusalem." Jordan, a Security Council member, put forward the request late Monday and was awaiting a response from Argentina, which chairs the 15-member council, on setting a date. Diplomats told AFP the meeting was unlikely to be held on Tuesday or Wednesday. Israel pledged to build more than 1,000 new settler homes in East Jerusalem on Monday, angering Palestinians who warned it could trigger an "explosion" of violence. In his letter, the Palestinian representative called on the council to demand that Israel rescind its plan immediately and "commit to the path of peace that it has clearly and recklessly abandoned....

A trio of traumatised lions were brought into Israel from Gaza on Wednesday on their way to a safer home at a wildlife sanctuary in Jordan after their zoo was largely destroyed during this summer’s conflict in the Palestinian enclave. The three, two males and a pregnant lioness, were sedated by a team of Austrian veterinarians at Al-Bisan zoo in the Gaza Strip, loaded into metal crates and transported through the Erez border crossing into Israel. Amir Khalil of the Four Paws International welfare group said the lions were in desperate need of help after the zoo was hit by airstrikes during the 50-day Israeli offensive against Gaza. “The lions are stressed, violent and afraid of the slightest movement,” Khalil told AFP. “The animals are very sensitive and the detonations from the bombings and explosions had a very strong impact on them.” more

Palestinian medical sources in the Gaza Strip have reported that a young man died at a Jordanian hospital, on Sunday morning, of wounds suffered during the latest Israeli onslaught on the coastal region. The sources said Anas Taiseer al-Hinnawi, 22, suffered a very serious injury, while one Palestinian was instantly killed when an Israeli drone fired a missile at them in Jabalia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. Following his injury, al-Hinnawi was moved to a local hospital before being moved to a hospital in Jordan, due to the seriousness of his condition. At least 12 Palestinians died of their wounds since the ceasefire agreement was reached under Egyptian mediation. The Ministry Of Health in Gaza said around 2137 Palestinians, including 578 children, 264 women, and 103 elderly, during the latest massive Israeli aggression on Gaza, while more than 11100, including 3374 children, 2088 women and 410 elderly, have been injured. more

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Jordanian member of parliament Muhammad al-Dawayima arrived in Gaza bringing with him 250 tons of medicines and medical equipment as humanitarian aid continues to flow in to the devastated Palestinian coastal enclave. "God has honored me with a visit to Gaza during the war and aggression, and here I am visiting it again after the victory," al-Dawayima said as he crossed the border into Gaza via Egypt's Rafah crossing. An official Palestinian delegation representing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the Jordanian delegation at the crossing. The Jordanian lawmaker also said that he had started to work on an initiative to build a fully-equipped hospital in the Gaza Strip in areas which suffer from a lack of medical services. more

World media recently lauded a new project, backed by the World Bank, that will allegedly “save” the Dead Sea and prove that peace is possible through cooperation to manage natural resources. But the scheme only threatens to make an already disastrous situation worse, as well as robbing Palestinians of their right to water. The Dead Sea, the fabled salt lake bordered by Jordan, present-day Israel and the occupied West Bank, is shrinking at an alarming rate of around 1.5 meters per year. As a result, hotels built right at the shoreline just a few years ago are now dozens of meters from the water’s edge. Environmental assessment studies show that some of the damage done — for instance to the Eastern Aquifer Basin — is already irreversible. To slow and reverse this catastrophe, Israel and Jordan proposed in 2002 to build a 180-kilometer canal to replenish the Dead Sea with water from the Red Sea. They claimed — falsely — that the project would prevent the destruction of the Dead Sea, bu...

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) has warned of the serious health deterioration of the Jordanian prisoners who have been on hunger strike for 97 days. In a press release issued Wednesday, the PPS pointed to the difficult health situation of the hunger strikers Munir Mari, Alaa Hammad, Mohammed Remawi, and Hamza Al-Dabbas coupled with the Israeli jailors’ repressive policy. The PPS said that the hunger striker Remawi has stopped drinking water since Tuesday after being assaulted by the Israeli guards due to his rejection to be held alone in a separate room. Rimawi said that he was subjected to severe beating after being handcuffed despite his serious health situation as part of the Israeli Prison Services' policy to undermine the prisoners' spirits and determination. The Jordanian prisoners stressed that they will continue their hunger strike despite their health condition. The statement pointed out that the hunger strikers Mari and Dabbas are de...

Two truckloads of potatoes from the Gaza Strip have been denied entry into Jordan on the grounds that the beleaguered territory "does not produce potatoes". Exporter Samir Zaqout said that the potatoes went smoothly from the Gaza Strip through Israel to the West Bank and the King Hussein Bridge. It was there that the Jordanian authorities refused to let them enter on the grounds that the Gaza Strip is not registered in its records as an exporter of potatoes. "We were surprised by the Jordanian decision, especially because Israeli approval took such a long time and very specific conditions were met and safety checks were made," said Zaqout. "The strip has a surplus of 2,000 tons in its production of potatoes and if the potatoes had been bad then how did they pass the strict Israeli tests and conditions?" His company will lose about 60-65,000 shekels (around $18,000) as a result of Jordan's refusal to import the potatoes. more

GAZA (Petra) – A convoy of trucks carrying supplies meant for Jordan’s military field hospital in Gaza, "Gaza 25", arrived in the Strip through the Beit Hanoun border crossing on Monday. Commander of the hospital Osama Qatawneh said that the six-truck convoy carried supplies that included medical equipment and other material required to sustain the hospital's services. He said the convoy’s arrival will help continue the work being carried out by the hospital and enable it to offer better medical services to the Palestinians in the Strip as part of the efforts to implement His Majesty King Abdullah II's directives "to provide our people in Gaza with distinguished medical services." more

EL-ARISH, Egypt (Ma'an) -- A delegation of Jordanian politicians entered the Gaza Strip this week via smuggling tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border, Egyptian security officials said Wednesday. Members from Jordan's Islamist Freedom and Justice party spent two days in Gaza, and reportedly met with Hamas officials. A senior Egyptian security official told Ma'an that the delegation would have been allowed to travel to Gaza via the Rafah crossing, but instead chose to enter via smuggling tunnels in order to keep the visit a secret from the Jordanian government. more

Royal Jordanian has disavowed sponsorship of an Israeli government tourism conference to be held in occupied Jerusalem later this month amid public uproar in Jordan that the airline’s logo appeared on the “supporter” page of the conference’s official website. The Royal Jordanian logo appeared alongside those of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Turkish Airlines. The website also reveals that the conference is sponsored by the Israeli prime minister’s office and the Jerusalem occupation municipality. Both the Royal Jordanian and Turkish Airlines logos have now been removed after users on Twitter objected to the companies’ sponsorship of the conference. Turkish Twitter mounted a campaign calling on their country’s airline to pull out of the conference using the hashtag #İsrailinSponsoruTHYyeBoykot . more

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- A fourth Jordanian aid convoy to the Gaza Strip arrived in Gaza City on Monday evening. The “Ansar 4” convoy, escorted with 31 Jordanian activists, left Amman by air for el-Arish airport in Egypt before heading to the Gaza Strip via the Rafah crossing. The head of a union of Jordanian agronomists, Mahmoud Abu Ghanima, who lead the convoy, told reporters at Rafah that the convoy was different from the first three others. This convoy, he said, will fund projects in Gaza in addition to bringing humanitarian aid. more

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- King Abdullah II of Jordan arrived in Ramallah on Thursday, in the first visit by an Arab leader since Palestine's admission to the United Nations as a state. President Mahmoud Abbas and his prime minister, Salam Fayyad, welcomed the king along with PLO and Fatah members as well as ministers and members of clergy. more

The Ansar 3 Jordanian solidarity convoy managed to enter the Gaza Strip, Sunday, through the Rafah Border Terminal between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, the Palestinian Information Center reported. The convoy, headed by Jordanian solidarity activist, Basheer Az-Zameely, includes 67 activists, most of them are Jordanians. Convoy members were welcomed in Gaza by the former Minister of Labor and Social Affairs in Gaza, Ahmad Al-Kurd, and representatives of the women’s movement of the Hamas movement. Al-Kurd thanked convoy members and stated that “convoys that keep heading to Gaza in solidarity with the Palestinian people play an essential role in the steadfastness of the Palestinian people in Gaza, living under Israeli siege, and ongoing Israeli military aggression”. more

Over one hundred international peace and human rights activists, who are planning to visit the occupied Palestinian territories, are scheduled to arrive at the Allenby Bridge Sunday afternoon. The activists, mostly Europeans, are planning to tell Israeli security that they want to come to Palestine as part of the Welcome to Palestine campaign. Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh, a spokesperson of the campaign told IMEMC "It is not clear yet, whether Israel will allow them in or not.". In previous attempts, in July 2011 and again in April 2012, Israel prevented activists who said they are coming to Palestine from entering the country, and forced airline companies to cancel the reservation of around 1200 activists. The activists of Welcome to Palestine campaign are hoping to visit with the Palestinians and accompany students on their first day to school. In a press release issued by the campaign organizers, they stated that one of the main purposes of the visit is to bring school stationary t...

AMMAN, (PIC)-- The Jordanian Lifeline Committee confirmed that Ansar 3 aid convey will head to Gaza at the end of September accompanied with necessary medical supplies for the people of Gaza. The coordinator of the convoy, Kifah Amayreh, said in a statement on Monday that the convoy collected donations to provide the needed medical supplies according to a list supplied by the health authorities in the Gaza Strip. more

GAZA (Petra) - A supply convoy for Jordan’s military field hospital in the Gaza Strip, dubbed "Gaza 19", arrived in the coastal enclave on Monday through the Beit Hanoun border crossing. "Gaza 19" hospital director Mohammad Al Itna said the ten-truck convoy was laden with medical equipment and other supplies. Also today Jordan’s military field hospital Gaza 20 began arriving at the coastal enclave. Since its deployment in Gaza in January 2009, upon directives of His Majesty King Abdullah II, the hospital provided treatment to more than 863,000 Palestinians in Gaza. more