The Jordanian government has warned against any attempt to exploit popular anger at Israeli repression against Palestinians to endanger national unity, press reports said Wednesday.
They quoted Prime Minister Ali Abu Ragheb as accusing late Tuesday "individuals and parties" of carrying out illegal activities to destabilize Jordan, one of only two Arab countries to have signed a peace treaty with Israel.
Speaking to members of parliament, Abu Ragheb singled out "the popular association for the support of the al-Aaqsa Intifada", which has published statements critical of the government.
In particular the group slammed the authorities for preventing a mass demonstration from reaching the King Hussein bridge leading from Jordan to the Palestinian territories on October 24.
According to Jordanian political circles, the association groups Jordanian nationalists and activists linked to Palestinian radicals.
Abu Rahgeb's deputy, Interior Minister Awad Khleifat, was also quoted as saying that the government would not allow the crisis in the Palestinian territories to cross the Jordan River.
"It will not tolerate any action against the security of the country or allow any party to take advantage of the feelings of Jordanians towards their Palestinian brothers to settle accounts in Jordanian territory", he added.
The government banned anti-Israeli demonstrations after violence in residential districts of Amman and the death of a Palestinian in a refugee camp on October 6, which the authorities blamed on rival Palestinian factions.
It authorized that of October 24 provided protestors did not attempt to cross the King Hussein bridge. When they disregarded the ban Jordanian police used tear-gas, water cannons and truncheons to disperse them.
More than half of Jordan's five-million-population are of Palestinian origin, including Queen Rania, and more than 1.5 million of them live in refugee camps.
Pro-Palestinian sentiment has been running high in Jordan in reaction to the avalanche of Israeli-Palestinian clashes since late September that has cost more than 160 lives, most of them Arabs – AMMAN (AFP)
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