If a person cannot choose where they are born and who their parents are, so can a country, nation or state with its cultural, geographic and geopolitical DNA. Some are consolidated through centuries of history, others are denied or questioned as to identity, some are drawn on the map (in Churchill's words) somewhat haphazardly, by bored officials on any given afternoon. winter Like Sykes and Picot, who were responsible for dividing the old Ottoman Empire between France and England after the end of the First World War.
Jordan is a small country (eleven million inhabitants) and vulnerable, with limited resources (tourism, potassium and phosphate deposits, some agriculture, some industry), with 22% unemployment and in a explosive location It has complicated neighbors such as Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and it is the one that shares the most border with Israel, an enemy in four wars, and which after the Six Days took away an important piece from it (the West Bank), a fact that led to a huge diaspora of Palestinian refugees. After Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait more than thirty years ago, Iraqi Scud missiles crossed its airspace en route to Jerusalem. Eight days ago it was the turn of the Iranian drones. He can never breathe in peace.
Its demographics and its foreign policy are a bomb, which in situations like the current one (Gaza war, exchange of attacks between Iran and Israel) seems like it could explode at any moment. It hosts around three million Palestinian refugees (more than the Gazan population), arrived in several waves from 1948 until now, with different rights depending on their origin, some with Jordanian nationality and others not. They are spread over a dozen camps that are actually suburbs of Amman, neighborhoods or cities in themselves, unkempt like those in the Middle East, with shops, barbershops, restaurants, schools and hospitals.
But apart from the refugees, a couple of million more Jordanians (rich and poor) are of Palestinian origin, and this reality creates a block that represents half the population of a country that since 1994 recognizes and is at peace with Israel, and is an ally of Washington, which gives it a billion dollars a year in economic and military aid.
All this forces King Abdullah (whose grandfather of the same name was killed in 1951 in Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque by a Palestinian enraged by his alleged agreement with Israel for the division of the territory) to perform difficult juggling so that the balance does not go astray. On the one hand, he strongly criticizes the war in Gaza, denounces genocide, calls for a ceasefire and a two-state solution, and has announced the cancellation of a controversial energy exchange agreement for water with Israel. On the other hand, it allows US military enclaves (such as the so-called Tower 22 in the northeast of the country) and participated in the defense against Iranian drones (to the great satisfaction of Tel-Aviv), even if it says it should done the same regardless of its origin, because it was not about helping anyone but defending the territory and national sovereignty (in Amman neighborhoods like Marj al-Haman, the holes left by the missiles in the asphalt).
Navigating these swampy waters is proving very difficult for the regime, which has liberalized the economy but is the subject of criticism for issues of nepotism and governance. As everywhere, the population complains about poor services, very high prices and taxes. For months, hundreds of people have been demonstrating after Friday prayers in front of the embassies of Israel and the United States with shouts such as "Death to America", "Open the borders" or "Let's side with Gaza". The anti-riot police have no regard, throw tear gas and have made more than a thousand arrests.
Behind the demonstrations, the regime – needing the loyalty of the army and the intelligence services – sees the hand of the Muslim Brotherhood, who are the main opposition and are capitalizing on the displeasure with what many consider an attitude too condescending towards Israel, after bringing down the Iranian drones (it is the only Arab country that took part in the operation, along with the USA, France and England) and without contemplation banning protests in the border area with the West Bank. Also due to the impact of the conflict on tourism (attractions such as Petra and Gerasa are half empty), and the lack of work for young people. The prices are no joke.
King Hussein was a conjurer who was on the throne for 46 years, a figure the West considered a friend and the Palestinians respected. His son Abdallah faces a similar challenge. There are countries like Jordan that seem born from the dream of that drunken god in Heine's poem, who escapes from the divine banquet to sleep the monkey on a lonely star, not knowing that he creates everything he dreams... Or from colonial empires that behave like gods.
