Jordanian Protesters Demand Closure of US Embassy

Citing political and economic encroachment, partly as revealed by WikiLeaks, protesters burned US and Israeli flags

Jordanian protesters demanded the closing of the US Embassy in the capital Amman on Wednesday, citing revelations from cables released by WikiLeaks that suggest covert US plans to turn Jordan into a home for Palestinians.

Scores of activists burned American and Israeli flags outside the embassy, chanting “The people want the Americans out.”

About half of Jordan’s 6 million residents are displaced Palestinians and it has long been thought that Israeli policy means to push remaining Palestinians in the West Bank into Jordan, something Jordan’s King Abdullah II has spoken out strongly against.

But Israeli encroachment wasn’t the only concern of the demonstrators who, like many of their counterparts in the Arab Spring, reject American imposition. The US has given billions in economic and security aid to the government of Jordan despite serious human rights abuses and has cooperated with the Jordanian government on rendition and torture, among other policies.

Israel has decided to close the Israeli Embassy in Jordan as members of this protest demonstration planned a corresponding “million-man march” outside the Israeli Embassy for later in the week.

Author: John Glaser

John Glaser writes for Antiwar.com.