Schoolchildren joined hundreds of Palestinian protesters in a huge march Monday inside Jordan's largest refugee compound calling on Amman to expel the Israeli ambassador.
A similar protest was also held at Jordan University, where around 2,000 students, many of them partisans of Islamist movements, gathered on the campus chanting slogans hostile to Israel and praising Jerusalem.
For more than one hour children as young as 10 holding school books mingled with older protesters for the march inside Baqaa camp, carrying black flags and banners of support for their Palestinian brethren in the occupied territories.
The march, organised by Yasser Arafat's mainstream Palestine Liberation Organisation group, Fatah, wound its way from outside camp schools across the main street to the sporting club on main square.
There they set ablaze a huge Israeli flag and stamped on it with their feet as they urged Jordan -- the only Arab country except Egypt to have a peace treaty with Israel -- to expel the Israeli ambassador from Amman.
"With our blood and our soul we redeem you, oh Jerusalem. With our blood and our soul we redeem you, oh Abu Ammar (Arafat)," the protesters chanted.
"No to peace. We must put an end to the negotiations," they said.
Baqaa camp is the largest compound of Palestinian refugees in Jordan which is home to more than 1.4 million refugees, most of whom hold Jordanian nationality.
Palestinians and Jordanians alike showed their anger against Israel at Jordan University, where they also set ablaze an Israeli flag and a US flag, vowed to avenge Palestinian blood and poured scorn on Arafat.
"Today is a day of anger, Revolution, Revolution," the university students chanted.
"Abu Ammar, you old man, you're a traitor in the service of imperialism," they shouted, denouncing the Palestinian leader for accepting to negotiate with Israel under US auspices.
"We don't want denunciations, we want cannons" to toll, the students said.
Arafat was to hold consultations with Jordan's King Abdullah II later Monday in Amman, which plans to open up state hospitals to an unspecified number of Palestinians injured in clashes with Israeli troops -- AMMAN (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
