Jordan police disperse unionists protesting imports from Israel

Jul 5, 2009, 14:53 GMT

Amman - Jordanian policemen on Sunday dispersed by force scores of trade unionists and politicians who tried to stage a sit-in before the Agriculture Ministry to protest import of agricultural products from Israeli settlements, eyewitnesses said.

'Several unionists were beaten in an unprecedented manner,' Maisara Malas, head of the Freedoms Committee at the Jordan Engineering Association, told reporters.

'We are surprised to see this happen at a time when the protest was a peaceful and civilized one,' he said.

He charged that the behaviour of policemen reflected 'capitulation to Zionist (Israeli) wishes rather than to the interests of the Jordanian people.'

The sit-in represented a culmination of a campaign by local press, trade unions and opposition parties to put pressure on the government to halt import of agricultural products from Israel which campaigners said were produced at settlements Israel set up in the West Bank against international law.

The Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation Saeed al-Masri on Sunday told a press conference that he was placing a ban on the import of agricultural products from Israeli settlements.

'I have powers to prohibit the import of agricultural goods produced at Jewish settlements, but the decision to ban import of products from Israel lies with the cabinet,' he said.

Jordan concluded a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, but the Islamic-led opposition and trade unions still oppose normalization of ties with the Jewish state.