Ahead Of Parliamentary Elections, Jordan Prohibits Muslim Brotherhood Party From Using Hamas-Style Symbol In Its Election Campaign

Ahead of Jordan's parliamentary elections, scheduled for September 10, 2024, the kingdom's Independent Election Commission has ordered the Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) movement in Jordan, to remove election posters it has hung throughout the country that feature a symbol shaped like an inverted green triangle. The commission explained its decision by saying that the law prohibits the use of symbols that were not presented during the registration of the electoral candidates.[1] However, the real reason is apparently the resemblance of this symbol to the inverted red triangle, a symbol identified with Hamas and with its armed struggle against Israel.[2] 

Responding to the election commission's decision in a video he posted on social media, Yanal Fraihat, a parliament member on behalf of the MB who is running again in the current elections, hinted that the commission was not really troubled by the use of an unregistered symbol in the election posters, but rather by what the inverted triangle represents – namely support for Hamas. He explained that the commission's order had compelled him to remove the triangle from his election posters, but that this was just a formality, because "the triangle [i.e., support for Hamas] lives in the heart." Fraihat's video gained traction on social media, where users expressed anger at the commission's decision and some claimed that it would only strengthen the MB in the elections.

Support for the MB was also expressed by retired Jordanian General Zuhdi Janbek, a former head of the Preventive Security Department in the Public Security Directorate. In an article on his Facebook account, he complained that the Jordanian establishment was waging an "unprecedented campaign" against the MB's Islamic Action Front party ahead of the elections. He speculated that the establishment fears that the MB will gain strength in the elections due to its support for Hamas, and urged Jordanians to vote for the MB party. He even suggested that the party’s candidates bypass the commission's prohibition and continue expressing their support for Hamas by printing posters in the shape of a red triangle, because the law has nothing to say about the shape or color of the election posters.

It should be noted that, since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, tension have increased between the Jordanian authorities and the MB movement in the country. The latter has been organizing mass protests in support of Hamas, which include calls for the Jordanian public to help the Palestinians by waging jihad against Israel and smuggling arms from Jordan to the West Bank, as well as calls against  King Abdullah. These messages anger the Jordanian authorities, which have accused the MB of fomenting chaos in the kingdom in the service of Iran.[3]  

 
The symbol featuring the inverted green triangle used in the election campaign of the MB's Islamic Action Front party (Facebook.com/Thalfwatny, August 27, 2024)

This report reviews the reactions to the Jordanian Independent Election Commission's decision to ban the inverted triangle in the election campaign of the MB party.

MB Parliament Member: We Have Been Forced To Remove The Triangle From Our Posters, But That Does Not Change Our Support For the Resistance

Yanal Fraihat, a member of the MB party in the current parliament, who is running again on behalf of this party in the upcoming elections, responded to the commission's order in a video he posted on social media. Standing in front of his own election poster, which is shaped like an inverted triangle and also bears an inverted green triangle in the top left corner, Fraihat notes that "this triangle bothered the Election Commission, allegedly because the [MB] campaign uses two symbols and there should be only one." He then asks sarcastically: "Is it really because there are two symbols? Or because this symbol is a triangle, with everything it connotes [i.e., support for Hamas]?"

Fraihat points out that his own poster is in the shape of a triangle, which is indeed meant to express support for the resistance, and stresses that this is not an act of "exploiting the events" (i.e., the Gaza war) to gain political profit, for he has always supported Gaza and the Palestinian resistance. He notes that, since an attempt to appeal the commission's decision failed, and since he respects the law, he must erase the triangle from his poster – and then proceeds to do so with some white spray paint. However, he adds that "we go to the elections staunchly committed to Jordan, to Palestine and to the resistance," and that the erasing of the triangle is just "a formality" that could not be avoided. He also states that "I erased the small triangle, but the big one [the shape of the poster itself] remains, and the triangle [i.e., support for Hamas] remains in the heart."[4]  

Fraihat uses spray paint to erase the inverted triangle from his election poster (Facebook.com/yanal.fraihat, August 29, 2024)

Jordanians On Social Media Support The Green Triangle

Fraihat's video sparked reactions on social media from Jordanians, including MB supporters, who likewise spoke out against the Election Commission's decision. Some of them said that the decision would actually serve the Islamic Action Front party by providing it with free propaganda. Others wrote sarcastically that the commission perhaps meant for the party to replace the green triangle with the red one  – the symbol used by Hamas' military wing in its videos to mark Israeli targets about to be attacked.[5]   

Writing on X, Jordanian judicial expert Muhammad Abu Ghanemeh, formerly the chief prosecutor in Amman, shared a picture of MP Yanal Fraihat's election poster in which the green triangle has been painted over with a large red one, and commented sarcastically: "In compliance with the Independent Election Commission's order to remove the green triangle from the posters of our dear Yanal Fraihat, I removed the green color and colored the triangle red."[6] 

The picture of Fraihat's poster shared on X by Muhammad Abu Ghanemeh

The Independent Election Commission Responds: We Enforce The Law Equally On Everyone

Responding to MP Fraihat's video, the commission's spokesperson, Muhammad Khair Al-Rawashdeh, said that "the commission underscores its commitment to enforcing the law neutrally on everyone without discrimination or bias in anyone's favor." He added that the commission had clarified to the parties at an early stage that they must use only the symbol approved during the registration of their lists, and that any attempt to add new symbols, not  approved in advance, was against the law and the guidelines and undermined the fairness of the elections. "The attempt by some people to mislead the public, or to provide misinformation about the election by presenting the commission's legal measures as an attempt to harm [certain] political forces or as discriminatory is [an act of] concealing the facts and the understandings reached with several lists and parties. The commission believes that these actions are a desperate attempt [be certain elements] to profit from the commission's measures and to play on the public's sentiments by means of propaganda that distorts the facts and conveys inaccurate information." Hinting at Fraihat's video, the spokesman expressed puzzlement at "the behavior of one of the candidates… who appeared on social media and presented the commission as opposed to the use of a particular symbol or to what it represents."[7]

Retired Jordanian General Comes To The Support Of The MB: The Green Triangle Symbolizes The MB's Support For The Resistance In Gaza;  Make Your Posters In The Shape Of A Red Triangle

Criticism of the Election Commission's decision was also heard from Zuhdi Janbek, formerly the head of the Preventive Security Department in Jordan's Public Security Directorate. In an article he posted on his personal Facebook account on August 30, he came out against the "unprecedented campaign" being conducted against the Islamic Action Front party. He wrote: "Two weeks ago, I conducted a simple public opinion survey, which found that the Islamic Action Front party is [likely to] win the elections... Past experience [shows that], as Hamas's popularity increases, so does the popularity of the MB in Jordan and of its political arm, the Islamic Action Front party... Looking at successive Jordanian governments, anyone who follows this matter can see that, the more the MB and the Islamic Action Front gain popularity in Jordan, the more [the government] restricts them, and smear campaigns are launched  against them in the media...

"Today, there is an unprecedented [media] campaign against the Islamic Action Front party... The party's candidates have been forced to remove all their election posters in order to erase the green triangle symbol from them...

"Gentlemen, the green triangle on the election posters of the Islamic Action Front is an expression of the party's position on the barbaric aggression in Gaza and of its support for the Islamic resistance there. So why do you prevent them from expressing their opinion??? Are we afraid that the Jordanian people will support them because of this support [for the resistance]? Or are we afraid that the Jordanian voter will express his true opinion and support them [in the elections]?...

"[The French writer and philosopher] Voltaire said: 'I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.' Therefore, this is a call to all those who complained and cried that about the silencing [of dissidents], about the prohibition of demonstrations and marches in support of the honorable resistance in Gaza, and about the arrests, and to all those who said that [these actions] were meant to prevent them from supporting the resistance in Gaza through speech, writing, drawing or by any other means. This is a call for you to express your opinion at the polls and vote for the [candidates] of the Islamic Action Front party, so as to demonstrate your opposition to the curtailment of its activities and the restrictions placed on this party, and so as to defend its right to express its views.

"My advice to the party and its supporters is: Redesign all your images and posters in the shape of the red triangle by making the poster itself triangular, and print your images and campaign slogans on the triangle. There is no legal restriction on the shape or color of the posters…"[8]