By Daoud Kuttab

When Khaled Kalaldeh, the head of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), spoke at the close of the day’s voting, those in attendance were stunned: “Eight voting boxes in the Central Badiya were tampered with and we plan to have a revote in those areas.”

Journalists attending the closing press conference of a long day on September 20 were not used to such transparency and decisiveness. In previous elections, such issues were never talked about from such an authoritative position, and no one remembers a decision on election night to have a revote anywhere in the Kingdom.

The IEC along with the Constitutional Court and the right to assemble (without the need of prior permission) were among the accomplishments of the reform process in Jordan.

The Constitutional Court has not performed very well and the right of assembly without prior permission is being eroded, but the election commission appears to have fulfilled the aspirations of Jordanians who wanted a body separate from the executive branch to oversee elections and ensure that the process is carried out independently.  Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

In a long interview with Egyptian ONTV Sept. 1, Jibril Rajoub, the head of the Palestinian Football Association, appeared to ridicule Palestinian Christians. Almost a week later, on Sept. 6, Rajoub insisted in an interview on Al-Quds TV that when he referred to the “Merry Christmas people,” he was merely being jovial. He claimed that he had often used the term and that no one had ever complained about it.

Many Palestinian Christians, including Atallah Hanna, a Greek Orthodox archbishop of Sebastia, weren’t laughing and demanded an apology. After initially hesitating, Rajoub apologized on Palestine TV Sept. 7 after a meeting in Ramallah with Catholic bishops who accepted the apology and asked that the incident be forgotten. Regardless, the episode has left a bad taste among a Palestinian community revealed to be fragile.

The context of Rajoub’s utterance was another reason it upset so many people. Talking about the 2012 municipal elections, Rajoub complained in the hour-long ONTV interview (later rebroadcast on Palestinian TV) that Palestinian Christians — or as he called them in that instance, the “Merry Christmas people” — had voted for Hamas candidates in the West Bank. The criticism was not taken lightly, with many noting that in elections, Palestinian Christians, like Palestinian Muslims, have the right to choose whomever they want and not have it used against them. Continue Reading »

            

By Daoud Kuttab

While addressing mourners for the loss of his mother in Jordan, Hamas leader Khaled Mishaal highly praised Jordan and Jordanian officials, and then spoke of a four-step approach to change the balance of power that is currently crushing Palestinians.

Mishaal, who along with Jordanian leaders of Hamas was deported from the Kingdom in 1999, has been allowed to visit for humanitarian family circumstance, such as the death of his father seven years ago and this week the passing of his mother.

At the conclusion of the three-day wake, the Hamas leader said he was speaking as a “free Arab and an open-minded Muslim”.

He called on fellow Palestinians and supporters to make use of all the points of strength they have, spoke forcefully about the need for national unity and reconciliation, and highlighted the need for a national Palestinian strategy.

Mishaal said that such a strategy should not contradict principles, but neither should it handcuff politically those pursuing it, saying that politicians should be clever and shrewd in executing such a national strategy.

But the most interesting point of Mishaal’s speech in Amman came in his concluding point, in his fourth step approach. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Like many Israeli officials, whenever Nir Barkat, the Israeli mayor of Jerusalem, wants to make a political splash among Israeli voters, he turns to the Palestinian arena, which is the gift that keeps giving. In April 2013, when Barkat was running for a second mayoral term, he turned to the Palestinian sector of Jerusalem to announce an ambitious project to create a cable car route connecting the Mount of Olives to the Western Wall. The goal of the cable car route is to physically unify East and West Jerusalem.

In October 2013, Barkat was re-elected as mayor. The project, which was supposed to begin two years later, seemed to have failed in 2015, when French company Suez Environment that was to take part in the project pulled out in March 2015 under the pretext of “wanting to avoid any political interpretation.” Another French company, Safege, which was to participate in the planning of the cable car project, also pulled out in March 2015, once the French realized that this was a highly controversial political plan and not simply a business project.

With his second four-year term coming to an end, Barkat is aiming for a much higher goal: that of the Prime Ministry. Barkat has now resurrected the failed project and has succeeded in getting political approvals of the relevant Israeli ministries. Speaking to Likud activists, Barkat is seen on a video uploaded on his Facebook page Aug. 25 displaying the route of the cable car that will run from the Mount of Olives to the edge of Al-Aqsa Mosque/Haram al-Sharif with stops at the Church of Gethsemane and in the Abu Tor and Silwan neighborhoods.  Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Sharif Muhaisen is worried about losing his job. Muhaisen works for Sanad, a construction industries company in Ramallah owned by the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF). Muhaisen is responsible for importing cement from Jordan. “We import about 500,000 tons of cement from Jordan every year,” he told Al-Monitor by phone from his home in Ramallah.

As part of his job, Muhaisen must travel to Jordan to meet with various cement companies, attend workshops and for other work-related reasons. Since summer 2015, however, Jordan has denied Muhaisen entry.

“Although I was born in Gaza, I have lived all my life in the West Bank, but I still need a special entry permit from the Jordanian authorities,” he said. “Since last summer, [the Jordanian authorities] have consistently denied me an entry permit.” Muhaisen provided Al-Monitor with a screen shot of text messages informing him that his requests had been denied.

Muhaisen, whose wife and two children have Jordanian passports because they were born on the West Bank, have no problem crossing the King Hussein Bridge into the kingdom. Up until the summer of 2015, “It took a few days to get the Jordanian authorities to issue the needed permit, but since my last application in June [2015], I and many others have been regularly rejected,” Muhaisen said. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

The summer months are the high season for cultural activities in Palestine, when folkloric troupes, dabke dance groups and theater companies put on performances for large audiences. The Palestinian Tourism Ministry has a dedicated webpage promoting such artistic, musical and other cultural events.

Once summer passes, these artistic groups become focused on invitations to dance and perform in world capitals and at international festivals. Palestinian cultural institutions dream of performing in major festivals and in front of foreign and Arab audiences as well as Palestinian crowds in the diaspora. These institutions compete to represent Palestine, and they pride themselves in the number of festivals that invite them to appear.

This summer, scandal ensued after Palestinian artists discovered that their own Foreign Ministry had recommended one troupe above all others for performances abroad. In a June 30 memo from Foreign Minister Riyad Malki, all Palestinian embassies around the world were informed that if asked to recommend a folkloric dance troupe, they should suggest al-Funoun al-Shaabiya, affiliated with the Istiqlal (Independence) University in Jericho. The university is a military academy headed by Tawfiq Tirawi, the former head of the General Intelligence Service and member of Fatah’s Central Committee. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Election season is a time for ideas, initiatives and actions. It is also a real test for the commitment of a state to democracy.

This week, this democratic test met a challenge and the result was not very good.

A group of young Jordanians decided to hold an election-awareness event. They rented a public location in Jabal Luweibdeh, contacted a number of election experts, including a woman member of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and announced the event on Facebook.

As per the amended Jordanian Constitution, they informed the Amman governor of their public event 48 hours before it was due to start.

Three and a half hours before the launch of the Hiwar lil tagheer (dialogue for change) the governor of Amman called the owners of Sakyat Al Darawish, its intended location, and informed him that the event is not allowed to take place.

The young organisers panicked slightly, but soon contacted a local radio station that agreed to accommodate the invited speakers and guests.  Continue Reading »

        

By Daoud Kuttab

Colourful posters of smiling candidates are not new among election-related paraphernalia. But a certain orange-colour poster caught people’s attention because of the slogans it contained.

One slogan read: “No to the exploitation of religion.”

Another affirmed support “for a civilian state”. A third showed two arrows going to opposite direction with the words “politics” and “religion”.

As religious extremism grows in the region, a strong movement that believes in the separation of politics from religion is starting to grow.

A popular Facebook group called “towards a civilian state in Jordan” has attracted over 2,000 members and includes some serious discussions and debates.

This attempt at secularisation is being replicated in many Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, despite the strong push back by religious groups and individuals who feel that talk of separating religion from politics is heresy and an imported ideology. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Tensions between Palestinian worshippers and Israelis at Al-Aqsa Mosque have been growing again. Following several incidents, Jordan’s King Abdullah told the Jordanian newspaper Ad-Dustour on Aug. 15, “We will persist in undertaking our religious and historical responsibilities toward Al-Aqsa Mosque/Haram al-Sharif, which faces repeated violations by extremist groups.”

There has been no direct response from the Israeli Prime Ministry, which is directly handling this sensitive issue, to the words “extremists” and “violations.” However, some Israeli government and nongovernment officials did respond to the king’s statement. One of the more negative responses came from a lower-level government official. Zeev Elkin, the Jerusalem Affairs Minister, described the king’s words as “lip service” aimed at appeasing Jordanians. Avi Dichter, the chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said Aug. 15, “Israel will not accept [that] Mecca and Medina rules apply on the Temple Mount,” a reference to only Muslims being allowed to visit Mecca.

Egypt’s Al-Azhar also strongly condemned Israeli soldiers’ recurrent storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. In an official statement issued Aug. 14, Al-Azhar called on the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to take serious measures to stop such “barbaric attacks and flagrant violations” at the complex, which is considered Islam’s third-holiest site. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

The most unusual group of Knesset members met July 26 to support the rights of the residents of two Palestinian villages who have been denied to return to their villages for 68 years now. The group included members of the governing coalition Kulanu Party and the opposition Zionist Camp, as well as former Minister of Defense Moshe Arens.

Upon the invitation of Ayman Odeh, head of the Joint List of predominantly Arab parties, Eli Alaluf from the governing coalition Kulanu Party and Ofer Shelah from the Yesh Atid opposition bloc, 30 Knesset members met to publicly declare their support for the rights of the villagers from Iqrit and Kufr Birim.

Six months after the creation of the State of Israel, the residents of the villages in the north of Israel and close to the Lebanese borders were asked on Nov. 4, 1948, by the Israeli army to vacate the villages for two weeks for military operational reasons. They have not been allowed to return since, even though they are Israeli citizens and have continued to live in nearby villages and towns while constantly demanding the right to return.

Appeals by the residents of those villages to the Israeli Supreme Court led in July 1951 to a ruling that Iqrit and Kufr Birim’s residents living in Israel must be allowed to return, but the ruling was ignored. Israeli soldiers forced several of the residents to watch as all of their homes were blown up with dynamite and other explosives on Christmas Day 1953. Continue Reading »