Mass protests erupted in Jordan on Friday, in front of the Husseini Mosque in downtown Amman, organized by the Popular Movement for Change, in opposition to the declaration of intent signed this week by Jordan, “Israel” and the United Arab Emirates – with the United States as a sponsor that will allow Jordan to trade its solar power for desalinized water from the Israeli occupation entity.

Al Mayadeen's Amman correspondent reported that protestors chanted in rejection of the water-for-electricity agreement signed by their government with the Zionist enemy, which they called "shameful".

Mass protests in #Jordan's capital, rejecting normalization agreements with the occupation.#التطبيع_خيانة #غاز_العدو_احتلال https://t.co/klOpmP2zwY

— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) November 26, 2021

The protestors chanted slogans such as “enemy gas is occupation" and “down with the Wadi Araba agreement”.

On her account, the Secretary-General of the Jordanian People's Democratic Party Abla Abu Elbah told Al Mayadeen that “normalization agreements harm Jordan’s sovereignty”, stressing that the "protests will not stop."

Abu Elbah confirmed that normalization is being
"imposed on us", adding that this is a matter they strongly reject. She considered that the authorities' justifications for the signing of the normalization agreements to be "unconvincing."

What is happening?

The National Campaign to Overturn the Gas Deal with "Israel" confirmed that decision-makers in Jordan shifted from political normalization to imposed normalization on Jordanians, after signing a declaration of intent regarding the water-for-gas deal with the Israeli occupation.

The Campaign considered that by signing the declaration of intent, Jordan has become a direct partner in international law violations and war crimes committed by the Israeli occupation, stressing that the declaration places Jordan's water security at the mercy of the occupation.

It also called on all parties and unions to boycott the decision-makers and to participate in the march organized next Friday to condemn the declaration.

Israeli Energy Minister Karine Elharrar said the Israeli-Jordanian "agreement" was the "most significant" since the two signed a "peace treaty" in 1994.

In a statement, the Jordanian Ministry of Water and Irrigation said the declaration of intent is "not an agreement, neither from a technical nor a legal point of view, and the project will not be implemented without obtaining this amount of water annually."

No to normalization

Jordanians protesting and rejecting normalization have repeatedly stressed that any normalization actions sought by "Israel" that aim to impose its influence and achieve its interests in Jordan will be opposed.

The first spark of Jordanian rejection to normalize ties with "Israel" started after discovering Emirati academic attempts to recruit Jordanian students and drag them into normalization.

Last Tuesday, hundreds of students demonstrated at the University of Jordan, in refusal of the declaration of intent and demanded its cancellation, as well as canceling Jordan's peace agreement with the Israeli occupation, known as the Wadi Araba Treaty.