2011–2012 Jordanian protests
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Jordanian protests (2011–12) | |||
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Part of the Arab Spring | |||
Date | 14 January 2011[1][verification needed] | – 4 October 2012||
Location | |||
Caused by | |||
Goals |
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Methods |
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Status |
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Parties | |||
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Lead figures | |||
• Retired General Ali Habashnah[11] • King Abdullah II
• Prime Minister Samir Rifai | |||
Number | |||
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Casualties and losses | |||
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The Jordanian protests were a series of protests in Jordan that began in January 2011, and resulted in the firing of the cabinet ministers of the government. In its early phase, protests in Jordan were initially against unemployment, inflation,[16] corruption.[17] along with demanding for real constitutional monarchy[3] and electoral reforms.[18]
Background
Jordan's economy continues to struggle, weighed down by a record deficit of $2 billion in between 2010 and 2011 due to the
Jordan has a history of persecuting activists and journalists. The country amended its penal code in August 2010 and passed a Law of Information System Crimes, to regulate the Internet. Revised laws continue to criminalize peaceful expression and extend those provisions to Internet expression. Jordanian authorities prosecuted peaceful dissidents and prohibited peaceful gatherings to protest government policies. Dissidents confined by the General Intelligence Department routinely sign confessions. According to a report by Amnesty International, intelligence agents in Jordan frequently use torture to extract confessions from suspects.[19]
Some analysts suggests that since
Protests
Early stage
Protests began on 14 January 2011, as protesters demanded Samir Rifai's resignation as well as economic conditions.
Demonstrators protested rising prices and demanded the dismissal of the Prime Minister and his government, but they have not directly challenged the king, criticism of whom is banned in Jordan. The demonstrators have been peaceful and have not been confronted by the police. So far no deaths, injuries or riots have been reported; however the protests' leaders said that the king had failed to take substantial steps to address mounting public resentment and they warned that unless real changes are made, that unrest could worsen.
Ali Habashnah, one of the retired generals desiring reforms, said that unrest has spread to rural areas dominated by Bedouin tribes. These tribes have been a traditional backbone of the monarchy. It was the first time, he said, that the Bedouins had joined with other groups in demands for change.[11]
On 28 January, following
On 2 February, demonstrations continued in demanding that King Abdullah II sack his newly appointed prime minister. Hamza Mansour, one of the leaders of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood, demanded elections to choose another prime minister. He said that Al-Bakhit "doesn't believe in democracy."[2]
The day after King Abdullah met with Muslim Brotherhood leaders at the royal palace, in an attempt to defuse tensions in the country, on 4 February, hundreds of people, including members of leftist groups and the Muslim Brotherhood, congregated outside the prime minister's office to demand economic and political reforms and the dissolution of parliament. They then marched to the Egyptian embassy in support of the anti-government protesters in that country. On 18 February, protesters who gathered in central Amman to demand political reform, clashed with a small group of government supporters that eyewitnesses claim attacked the protesters with sticks and stones, before the police restored order. Eyewitnesses said about 2,000 protesters, mostly young people joined by trade unionists and others, took to the streets after prayers at the Husseini Mosque, though other reports said the number was about 300.[29]
About 7,000–10,000 protesters were on the streets of Amman on 25 February, in the largest protests so far.[12]
In the first week of March anti-government protesters continued where opposition groups demanded such greater political freedoms as a constitutional monarchy.
On 24 March, Al Jazeera reported that around 500 protesters, mainly university students and politically unaffiliated unemployed graduates set up a protest camp in a main square in the capital to press demands for the ouster of the prime minister, seen as insufficiently reformist, as well as wider public freedoms. Other demands include dissolving the parliament, which was seen as too docile, dismantling the intelligence department and giving greater powers to the people, including a new, more proportional, election law. Jordan's opposition also wanted to strip the king of some of his powers, specifically in appointing the prime minister, as they wanted the premier to be elected by a popular vote.
On 25 March, clashes occurred between supporters of the king and more than 2000 protesters camped in Gamal Abdel Nasser Circle. Some witnesses said the police stood by as government supporters moved into the square and began throwing stones.
On 1 April, nearly 400 policemen were deployed to separated hundreds of government supporters and pro-reform activists holding rival rallies outside municipal offices in Amman.
On 15 April, more than 2,000 Jordanians took to the streets throughout the country demanding greater political representation, with half of them demonstrating in Amman, immediately after prayers. Also, a crowd of a few hundred Islamists clashed with a somewhat smaller group of monarchy loyalists in Zarqa. Eight civilians and 83 policemen were wounded, including 4 in critical condition.
Protests continues
On 13 June, the motorcade of
On 17 June, youth groups and activists will protest calling on greater reforms,[33] which the kingdom has dismissed for 2–3 years, including the election of a prime minister and cabinet.[34]
A rare outbreak of violence marred protests in Amman on 15 July, with police beating journalists and protesters alike. The Public Security Directorate offered a mixed response, accepting full responsibility for the violence and promising compensation to journalists who suffered injuries or damage to equipment, but blaming demonstrators for instigating hostilities.
On 16 July, a more peaceful demonstration took place.
An Al Jazeera correspondent covering a protest on 20 July had a mixed reaction to the way security forces handled the situation, noting that while police and gendarmes respected all attendees' freedom of speech and acted quickly and effectively to prevent clashes between pro-reform demonstrators and government supporters, police also did nothing to prevent verbal harassment and intimidation of the former group by vocal loyalists.
In Amman, on 29 July, around 3,000 Muslim Brotherhood activists at the demonstration raised their right hand and took an oath to continue peaceful protests until their demands for political reform in the kingdom are met.
On 14 August, clashes erupted between government loyalists and pro-reform demonstrators in a street protest in Karak after midnight.[35]
After a lull in September, protests started again on 7 October, when former prime minister Ahmad Obeidat led over 2000 people in a march outside the Grand Husseini Mosque in central Amman. There were also marches in the cities of Karka, Tafileh, Maan, Jerash and Salt.[36]
There was a further march on 15 October, as part of the global "Occupy" movement, which was held in the northern city of Salhub, which is located 50 kilometers (32 miles) from the Jordanian capital Amman. A counter-protest attacked the marchers, hurling stones and firing their guns into the air. The next day, a memorandum signed by 70 out of 120 lawmakers was presented to the royal palace demanding that the prime minister and the cabinet be sacked. Much to the surprise of the opposition in the country, the king almost immediately complied, naming
Riots took place in the several cities and towns in mid November, most notably in
Also, the trial of nearly 100 protesters indicted the previous April began, and much from the capital Amman were arrested for corruption.[39]
In December, there were protests in Amman,[40] and riots in the northeastern cities of Mafraq[41] and Qatraneh.[42]
On 24 December, protesters gathered outside of the prime minister's office to protest the treatment of protesters by the security forces the previous day in Mafraq.
Protests subside
For most of 2012, protests subsided. The uprising in neighboring Syria, which had led to tens of thousands of deaths, dampened the enthusiasm of some Jordanian activists, who reportedly feared chaos developing in Jordan. In November 2011, King Abdullah called for a change in government in Syria, one of the first of Syria's neighboring leaders to do so.[43]
Renewed protests
On late 1 September 2012, Jordanians from
On early 8 September, Jordanian anti-riot forces stormed a protest in the southern city of
On 5 October, thousands of Jordanians attended a protest demanding political reforms in Amman, hours after King Abdullah II dissolved parliament and called early parliamentary elections. Video footage showed protesters chanting slogans and waving flags. The AFP news agency quoted people as shouting: "We demand constitutional reform before the people revolt. The people want to reform the regime."[49]
2012 fuel price protests
On 13 November, protests erupted across the country nationwide in response to an increase in fuel prices and other basic goods announced by Prime Minister
In response to the protests, foreign minister Nasser Judeh said the government had tried to respond to the opposition over the past year with the establishment of an independent elections commission before balloting set for January 2013 and the formation of a constitutional court, among other changes.[51][52]
The Jordanian government said Qais al-Omari was killed in a shootout with a group of armed men who assaulted a police station here on Wednesday night. But two members of his family and a witness to the killing said that he was unarmed, part of a group of about 30 unarmed men who walked to the police station to complain about abusive language they said officers had used while breaking up an earlier protest. Angry crowds then set fire to several government cars and burned down a municipal building, where a heavy contingent of plainclothes police officers was watching children play on Thursday.
On 16 November, thousands of demonstrators chanted the
Jordanian unions held a strike on Sunday 18 November to protest fuel price rises. The head of Jordan's 15-member professional associations body said all 15 unions except the nurses' union stopped working between 11:00 am and 2:00 pm on Sunday. Teachers' union also held a strike on Sunday, with spokesman Ayman al-Akur saying "the strike was observed by 70 to 75 percent of schools across the country", demanding the king intervene to reverse the decision to raise fuel prices.[57]
King Abdullah II visited the public security and gendarmerie personnel who were injured in fuel price riots and are receiving treatment at King Hussein Medical Center and wished them a speedy recovery. He praised security forces' discipline and self-restraint in dealing with the latest riots and the protest movement that began about two years ago.[58]
Concerns
As the original protests were based to a degree on rising
Casualties
Name | Age | From | Date of Death | Cause of Death |
---|---|---|---|---|
Qais Al Omari | 23 | Irbid | 14 November 2012 | Shot by the police during a protest. State-run Jordan News Agency reported that he was one of the "gunmen" died in a shootout when a group of them attacked a police station in the northern city of Irbid. But the father of Qais said his son did not carry a weapon and did not attack police.[59] |
Ahmad Al Maqableh | 31 | Jerash | 30 November 2012 | Shot in the head when a police centre in Amman came under shooting during country-wide protest on 14 November. He died of his wounds at Al Hussein Medical Centre 16 days later where he had been receiving treatment.[60] |
Response
Domestic response
On 1 February, the Royal Palace announced that King Abdullah II had sacked the government as a consequence of the street protests and had asked Marouf al-Bakhit, an ex-army general, to form a new cabinet.[61] Abdullah told al-Bakhit his authority will be to "take quick, concrete and practical steps to launch a genuine political reform process,". The reforms should put Jordan on the path "to strengthen democracy," and provide Jordanians with the "dignified life they deserve," the monarch said.[62] He also asked al-Bakhit for a "comprehensive assessment ... to correct the mistakes of the past." and also the statement said Abdullah demanded an "immediate revision" of laws governing politics and public freedoms.[63]
Bakhit stated that opposition groups, both Islamist and leftists, might possibly be included in the new government,[64] but the Islamic Action Front immediately rejected that offer, stating that the current political conditions did not allow for them to join the government and that they were looking for real reform.[65] Despite calls to stay away from the new government, the Islamic Action Front and five leftists were represented in a new government sworn in on 10 February.[66]
There were also talks of reforming electoral law to reduce gerrymandering in constituency boundaries and guarantee greater proportionality.[67] Taher Odwan, formerly editor-in-chief of Al Arab Al Yawm, a Jordanian newspaper, that was critical towards the government, was appointed minister of media affairs and communications. Odwan pledged enhanced press freedoms and access to information.[68] A$500m package of price cuts in fuel and staples, including sugar and rice, was announced, along with salary increases for civil servants and the military.
On 11 February, following Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's resignation, the Muslim Brotherhood stated that "Arab regimes should learn a lesson from what has happened [in Egypt]."
On 15 February, the Public Gatherings Law was reformed to allow unrestricted freedom of expression; the former law required permission from the governor to hold demonstrations. A reform of the electoral law was also promised.[69]
On 15 March, King Abdullah II said a 53-member committee with government officials and opposition leaders would draft new laws for parliamentary elections and political parties, setting a three-month deadline for agreement on political reforms. However, the Muslim Brotherhood said it would not take part unless parliament is dissolved and a prime minister is elected from a parliamentary majority.[70]
On 28 March, three days after deadly clashes between protesters and supporters of the king, King Abdullah II called for national unity, telling his citizens to avoid "any behaviour or attitude that would affect our unity." He went on to state that economic and political reforms were on their way. However, the Parliament rejected calls to reduce the king's power. As a response to the same violent clashes, 15 members of the government-appointed committee for national dialogue quit, effectively suspending its activity, although 12 of them retracted their resignations following a meeting with the king. The government decided to ban its supporters from demonstrating in the capital, while the opposition was allowed to demonstrate in specially designated areas in Amman.
On 12 June, in a television speech commemorating 12 years on the throne, the king said he would relinquish his right to appoint prime ministers and cabinets, instead, elected parliamentary majority would be the ones to form future cabinets. He also said that more reforms would be announced in the future, including new election and political party laws.[71]
Prime minister Al Bakhit resigned on 17 October, after 70 of 120 deputies had called for his resignation for failing to swiftly implement the political reform package. King Abdullah appointed
In April 2012, Prime Minister
On 4 October 2012, King Abdullah II dissolves the parliament for
International response
United States – State Department spokesman Mark Toner says the Obama administration believes King Abdullah II is on the "right track" despite the protests, ""We call on protestors to do so peacefully. We support King Abdullah II's roadmap for reform and the aspirations of the Jordanian people to foster a more inclusive political process that will promote security, stability as well as economic development."[73]
See also
- 1989 Jordanian protests
- 2018 Jordanian protests
- November 2012 uprising in Jordan
- 1996 Jordanian protests
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