A Letter to the Editor of the Washington Post Redarding Amman’s Protest Friday, July 22, 2011

Dear Editor of the Washington Post,

On July 22, 2011, your esteemed internet site carried a report from the Associated Press titled: “Jordanians Seeking Democratic Reforms Burn US Flag, Denouncing Interference in Movement”. 

Unfortunately, that report misquoted me as having said that we, the demonstrators, “want a real functioning democratic structure to emerge following free and fair parliamentary elections.”

In fact, I said no such thing. 

But this is not merely a misquote, it’s a falsification of what our protest was about, to make it fit the “pro-democracy” stereotype.  Our protest was NOT about striving to achieve U.S.-style change, without the help of the U.S.  Our protest was against the very policies and structures which yield dependency on the U.S., and normalization with “Israel”.  We also demanded the closure of the “Israeli” Embassy in Amman, and none of that was cited. 

The point was that we are not interested in periodic electoral festivals, which the U.S. Government seems to call “democracy”, and which always yield the same set of policies beneath the rotation of “new faces”.  We clearly stated that we wanted an end to the dependency, including following the dictates of international economic institutions like the World Bank and the IMF, and political, military, and security cooperation with the U.S. Government.  That was a big part of our message, mostly lost in the media coverage, perhaps because the U.S. media has opted to portray all Third World protests as “democracy” and “human rights” protests with an American, inside every Third Worlder, trying to come out!

By the way, unlike what your report claimed, we were much more than 300.  Photos in local Jordanian media are easily available to verify that claim.

Ibrahim Alloush
One of the organizers of the July 22, 2011, protest in downtown Amman, Jordan.

The Washington Post report in question can be found on this link: