Jordanians protest package tours to East Jerusalem

Aug 9, 2010, 15:41 GMT

Amman - Opposition party leaders and prominent unionists demonstrated before the Jordanian Ministry of Tourism on Monday to protest the arrangement of package tours to East Jerusalem by tourism bureaus in the country.

The protesters, who belonged to the National Committee for Resisting Normalization of Ties with Israel, held signs and shouted slogans urging for such journeys to be banned because they would take place in coordination with the Israeli embassy in Amman.

'Obtaining a visa from the Israeli embassy is tantamount to a recognition of the Zionist entity that bestows legality on the occupation of the holy city,' the president of the Trade Unions Council, Ahmad Armouti, said.

Israel captured East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank from Jordan in a 1967 war.

Jordan and Israel concluded a peace treaty in 1994, under which the Jewish state acknowledged Amman's right to look after both the Islamic and Christian holy shrines in East Jerusalem, which the United Nations still considers an occupied territory.

But Jordan's Islamic-led opposition and professional societies still oppose the peace pact and have campaigned to derail any normalization of ties between the kingdom and Israel.

The Jordan Engineers Association (JEA), the country's largest trade union, on Sunday instructed its members to refrain from joining package tours to the holy city or lose their membership otherwise.

'Applying for a visa from Israel is recognition of its existence. This is unacceptable for all professionals, especially engineers, who see the Zionist entity as an occupation force,' JEA President Abdullah Obeidat said in a statement.