The *FREE ARAB VOICE*
October 24, Amman, Jordan

A Report from the Clashes of the Right of Return March
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1) Negotiating the March with the Jordanian Regime:

After prohibiting the march, the Union of Professional Associations
which called for the march months ago managed to wrest from the
government permission to go ahead with the ROR march as long as two
conditions were observed strictly: one, that the march would not go to
the Hussein Bridge that leads from Jordan to Palestine, but to the Tomb
of the Unknown Soldier in Al Karameh instead where opposition parties
and the Union of Professional Associations can hold a rally, and two,
that the total number of buses going to the rally would not exceed
forty-five from all the districts of Jordan.

The government had announced in the papers that the ROR march was
cancelled.  The Union of Professional Associations almost obliged if it
weren’t for intense pressure from the membership.  As it turned out, the

people were going to go to the march whether it was legal or not.
That’s what the Union told the government to allow a small hole through
which solidarity with the Intifada in Palestine and the principle of ROR

could be vented out.  But nobody, not the government, not the Union, and

not the official opposition parties expected the overwhelming turnout
that actually materialized on the roads leading to Palestine.

2) The Strategy of Containment:

In fact, 185 buses from all the branches of the Union of Professional
Associations in Jordan submitted requests to join the march for ROR.
This does NOT include all the buses of universities, refugee camps,
schools, etc.. that were going to go on their own anyway.  Neither does
it include those who were going to go in private vans and cars.  The
afternoon before, yesterday, dozens of armored vehicles were seen
heading for the Jordan Valley on the eastern bank of the Dead Sea.
Furthermore, heavy reinforcements of troops took positions in
anticipation of today.  They were not disappointed.

This morning, thousands were left behind at the Compound of the Union of

Professional Associations in Amman because their buses were not given
permission to depart because they were over the quota given to Amman,
which is twenty-five buses.  Some of these people later managed to join
the miles-long convey using private cars, trucks, or whatever.  The
others, well, they were attacked and forced to disband by security
forces at the Union of Professional Associations as I heard through the
grape vine.

The strategy used by the Jordanian regime to contain the march was to
block the march at different points, to make it dissipate and lose
steam.  Thousands of cars were first stopped at the suburb of Marj Al
Hamam just outside Amman.  When they were allowed to proceed, they were
stopped again for extended periods of time about half-way through in an
area called Al Adasyeeh.  Then tanks, troops, and other tools of
oppression forced the long double and triple columns convoy to change
routes, away from the location of the rally in Al Karameh.  People
started taking long detours in country roads to reach the designated
place.  Eventually, many of them made it, albeit a little too late,
after the rally was over with, which was the point of course.  But forty

buses from the northern city of Irbid could not make it at all, and
that’s just one example.  En route, they engaged in extensive clashes
with security troops that would not let them through.  These battles
took place in an area called al Arida.

3) The Battles of the ROR March:

In the meantime, while tens of thousands were delayed or prevented from
getting through, the leadership of the opposition and the Unions took
the wrong step of commencing with the rally with only a few thousand
present.  Boring high-pitched rhetoric did not rise to the occasion and
did not satisfy the crowd.  The Bridge was only a few miles away.  So
marchers tried to head south in that direction as originally planned.
But armored vehicles and troops wielding shields, helmets, clubs, and
tears gas guns, where lying in wait.  The marchers were blocked, and the
battle was on.

In view of the attacks from the south, the marchers went north exactly
in the opposite direction from the Bridge to take the high ground on
the slopes of a high hill.  Now the troops were beneath them. Stones
against tear gas bombs, skirmishes in the wings, and clubs swinging
every which way, left many injured.  Tear gas bombs had to travel
upwards, and the stones showered downwards.  It was a good fight. It
was rainy in Jordan today, so the wind blew back the gas downwards over
the heads of the troops.  Now they sat in the poisonous cloud. The
Almighty was on the side of the Palestinian cause for a change, but
still, many demonstrators were arrested or injured.

Choppers hovered. Shrieks mixed with the gas. Columns of white smoke
rose into the sky.  Many of those blocked realized that something was
going down. The ones who were closest, say only one or a couple of
miles away, ran in the direction of the stage of operations. These
turned up south of the scene, right in the intersection in the middle
of the town of southern Shouneh. The troops were now sandwiched. Their
response was a counter-attack with armored vehicles, tear gas, clubs,
and cannons spewing out colored water.  Many were arrested and beaten.
Since the demonstrators had brought in their families with them, there
were many children injured. An eyewitness who went into the health
center nearby told me that there were dozens of injured children and
teenagers from both sexes stretched on the floors.  A particular brand
of tear gas seems to affect the central nervous system not just induce
tears.  There were many who fainted on the side-walks.  The gray sky
shadowed the evil perpetrated by the Jordanian regime against Jordanian
and Palestinian demonstrators marching for the right of return. Every
now and then, chants would arise again: “To the Bridge, To the Bridge…”.
But there was steel and Arab troops in blue making sure that nobody
makes it west, on the road to Palestine.

4) “Please Disband in Peace”:

The third wave of demonstrators made it to the intersection at southern
Shouneh. By now the rally was over, but those present refused to leave.
Most of them were regular folks not affiliated with any political party
or group.  Many were members of the Unions of Professional Associations,
doctors, engineers, lawyers, etc... But there was as well a few hundred
present from the Muslim Brotherhood, the PFLP, and the Baath party.
The people were in no mood to listen to the so-called rational leaders
pacify them with high anti-Zionist and anti-Arab regime rhetoric, and low
political positions calling for the demonstration to disband. But that’s
exactly what happened. A top leader from the Muslim Brotherhood took the
loud speaker and asked people to leave. “We achieved what we came here
for. We’ve made our point”, he said, then he asked members of the Islamic
coalition to withdraw. The troops filled in their place. The people
started chanting: “Traitor! Traitor!”. The troops surrounded the rest
and started pushing them away to clear the intersection. The few thousand
that remained disbanded and the mobile phones went back to functioning
as normal.

In the meantime, a ten-year old girl, Kayan Hattar, remains in the
hospital, and dozens of others remain in prison cells.

The General Secretary of the Union of Professional Association,
Mahmoud Abu Ghanemah, was beaten senseless by the troops, and
his father, Ziad Abu Ghanemah, a pharmacist and a writer, was
wisked to jail. Both are independent Islamists.

I have the shells of two tear gas bombs near the screen now, one
for long ranges, manufactured by the Defense Technology Corporation
of America, and the other for short ranges, manufactured by Federal
Laboratories, Saltsburg, Pennsylvania, 15681.

The people are not done protesting yet. One walk among the ranks at
the end of the demonstration, and you’ll find that out for sure.
So in the meantime, defeatists and opportunists are trying to ride
the political waves. A political party formed by former Prime
Minister Abdul Raouf al Rawabdeh distributed a leaflet in the
demonstrations calling for the liberation of all of Palestine.
In fact, upon reading the leaflet, I thought it was totally
plagiarized from the texts of those who have been saying that
stuff for years, long before it became in vogue. Azmi Bshara gave
an exclusive lecture to the Rotary Club in some fancy hotel in Amman
yesterday in which he tried in vain to lick back all his stuff
about coexistence and the bi-sexual state, but some members of
the audience made sure to tell him exactly what his role has
been in fomenting defeatism in the last few years.

Defeatists, feel free to crawl under a rock or something. THIS
IS OUR TIME NOW. The Arab people are on a roll.

Ibrahim Alloush

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