Hundreds burn Israeli fruit, vegetable crates after clerics issue religious edict

Roee Nahmias

Cold peace with Jordan: Israelis good were burned in Jordan Saturday, during protests against Israel in the Hashemite Kingdom’s capital marking Nakba Day.

Hundreds of members of the Anti-Normalization Committee, which fights against normalization of economic relations with Israel, set fire to hundreds of fruit and vegetable crates imported from the Jewish neighbor.

The protest, held in Amman’s central marketplace, came a day after Jordanian clerics issued a religious edict that forbids purchasing merchandise from Israel.

Director of Jordanian trade unions Dr. Ahmed al-Armouti said that these activities reflect the Jordanian people’s stand in respect to normalizing ties with Israel. According to al-Armouti, such normalization will serve as a recognition of the “occupation’s legitimacy and existence,” and lead to “economic, political and security dangers that might threaten Jordan’s stability.”

Al-Armouti said the Jewish state is “an entity that plans to destroy al-Aqsa Mosque and expel the residents of Palestine.” Those who have normal ties with Israel are “godless people devoid of humanity,” he said, adding that the Anti-Normalization Committee plans to announce the names of Jordanians who maintain normalized relations with Israel in the near future.

The religious edict issued on Friday forbids purchasing merchandise produced in Israel. London-based publication al-Quds al-Arabi reported that 51 religious clerics announced the collective edict on Friday, and called on all Muslims to boycott products made in Israel, because it was “the enemy that plunders Muslim land.”

The religious edict also ruled that all Muslims are required to support Jihad by all means necessary, in order to abolish the occupation and back the residents in “occupied lands.”