Jordanians protest environmental normalisation with Israel

Dozens of Jordanians yesterday staged a sit-in in front of the Jordan Valley Authority in the capital, Amman, to demand an end to environmental normalisation with Israel.

The protesters demanded the authority not renew the lease granting the Jordan Eco-Park in the northern Jordan Valley to the Jordanian branch of the EcoPeace Middle East organisation, saying it threatens the Jordanian food basket.

EcoPeace Middle East is a regional environmental organisation that includes environmental activists in Jordan, Palestine and Israel.

من الاحتجاجات أمام سلطة وادي الأردن للمطالبة بعدم تجديد إيجار اراض في منطقة غور الأردن لمنظمة مطبعة وتقيم مشاريع مشتركة مع العدو الصهيوني ..
والتأكيد على رفض تصدير الخضار الأردنية ومرور شاحنات الجسر البري لصالح العدو الصهيوني…#الاردن#اوقفوا_الجسر_البري#تصدير_الخضار#التطبيع pic.twitter.com/P8BDMjaxKM

— خالد وليد الجهني (@KhaledEljuhani) February 20, 2024

The Jordan Eco-Park, previously known as Sharhabeel Bin Hasna Park, is currently being used as a normalisation project under the guise of environmental preservation, and works to integrate Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli youth into environmental programmes and joint workshops. The organisation is criticised for including extremist Israeli organisations from settlements built illegally on Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank.

The park is currently managed by an association registered in Jordan as a local institution under the name Society for the Protection of Earth and Environment.

The participants in the sit-in which was organised by the National Forum to Support Resistance and Protect the Homeland, and the Jordan BDS movement, raised banners demanding the Jordanian government stop all forms of normalisation with Israel and stop contracting with Ecopeace saying it threatens Jordanian national security in the most important issue, which is food.

The participants stressed the need to shut down the organisation’s offices, especially in light of Israel’s ongoing aggression on Gaza, which requires the government stop supplying Israel with food and other goods and providing it a land route for imports.

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