Jordanian BDS activists rally against 'pro-Israel' parliament

The Jordanian parliament on Monday voted to allow Israel to invest in the Jordanian sovereign wealth fund hours after they had previously voted to reject it, sparking anger from Jordanians.  

Jordanian activists supporting the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign reacted with anger towards the news on organised protests on Tuesday.

Activists used the arabic hashtag I am Jordanian and I reject Israeli investment to criticise parliament's decision, and published photographs of MPs voting in favor of the investment.

"There will be a protest today in Amman and work is continuing to collect signatures from all parties and trade unions to reject what happened in parliament yesterday" Khaled al-Shakka from Jordan BDS told The New Arab.

"The protest outside parliament will reject all forms of normalisation with the zionist entity and reject parliament's move to allow zionist companies to participate in Jordan's sovereign wealth fund."

Activists accused the parliament of collaborating with Israel and being subservient and suggested that security services influenced the decision of the MPs.  

"The decision of the parliament to allow Israel to participate in the sovereign wealth fund is predictable for a parliament that Jordanians know doesn't control its own decisions" the head of the anti-normalisation campaign in trade unions Majed Majali told The New Arab.

"We were waiting for MPs to surprise us by clinging to their original decision but they did not," Majali added.

Majali expressed suspicions about the wealth fund, especially after Israeli companies were allowed to invest in it.

"After normalisation failed at the popular level the government is trying to go [for it] at the official level," he said, referring to popular reluctance to buy Israeli goods in Jordan.

Last year Jordan pledged to end the import of Israeli goods - mostly agricultural products - in response to the demands of a local boycott campaign.

Boycott campaigns in Jordan intensified last year following repeated Israeli attacks on Palestinian protesters, as well as the storming of the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem.