The January 3, 2023 visit of Israel National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to the Temple Mount sparked furious responses in Jordan. The Jordanian Foreign Ministry harshly condemned the visit and warned of escalation and "a dangerous trend, which the international community should take immediate action to avert." Ministry spokesman Sinan Al-Majali said that the government of Israel bears responsibility "for the grave consequences of this escalation, which torpedoes all the efforts to prevent an increase in the violence." The ministry went so far as to summon the Israeli ambassador in Amman to lodge its protest against the visit.[1] Harsher responses were heard from Jordanian MPs, who called for severing relations with Israel and expelling its ambassador. Several MPs even demanded to open the border and enable jihad against Israel, and to allow the transfer of weapons to terrorist organizations in the West Bank – mentioning the Lions' Den militia in Nablus and Hamas' military wing, the 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades. Some of the MPs expressed willingness to become martyrs themselves.[2]
To watch a MEMRI TV clip of some of the MP's reactions, click below:
The Jordanian press published scathing articles and political cartoons condemning Israel. Among them was a particularly strident article by Rashid Hassan, a Jordanian columnist of Palestinian origin. In his January 8, 2023 column in the daily Al-Dustour, he praised "the lions" of Palestine – apparently a reference to the Lions' Den militia – for their commitment to the approach of fighting Israel until victory or martyrdom. Stressing that the way to liberate the Palestinian land and holy places from "the filth of the despicable Nazi occupation" is by means of blood, sacrifice and martyrdom, he described the leaders of the Palestinian Authority (PA) as "profiteers who sold the homeland cheaply" and stated that this path of uncompromising resistance is a death sentence for the Oslo Accords with Israel.
Cartoon in Jordanian daily depicts Israel as a wolf threatening to devour Al-Aqsa (Al-Ghad, Jordan, January 5, 2023)
The following are translated excerpts from Rashid Hassan's column: [3]
"One of the most wonderful things which the glorious revolution of the [Palestinian] lions embodied, presented, and emphasized is the necessity to confront the Zionist enemy and to continue the confrontation until achieving either victory or martyrdom. Although this idea is not new in essence, it underscores the strategy of this tremendous revolution, namely that there is no turning back from resistance and confrontation and no substitute for this path of resistance, i.e., for expelling the enemy and liberating the land and the holy places from the filth of the despicable Nazi occupation. Confrontation until martyrdom.
"It should be stressed that confrontation is not a ruse or idle talk, or concocting theories from a distance that have no grounding in reality. It is shahada and istishhad – martyrdom and sacrifice – which the [early 'Abbasid Egyptian] poet Muslim Ibn al-Walid called… 'the most exalted sacrifice,' which elevates the value of this powerful emblem [i.e. martyrdom] among our jihad-fighting people, and especially among the members of the revolutionary younger generation which has chosen this difficult path, the most illustrious path, sealed in blood, the path of eternity.
"These lions have turned the tables on the tyrannical enemy, on those who are derelict [in their duties] and on the profiteers who sold the homeland cheaply, for a handful of pennies.
"The path of revolution, gentlemen, is the path of spilled blood… The path of revolution is the path of martyrdom. The path of revolution is the eternal path, the path of victory and delivery from the swamp of defeat, the only way to restore honor and glory! And at this point I say a single sentence, and I will never tire of repeating it: that resistance is the fastest way to be rid of the occupation and to restore the Arab Palestine – pure and purged of the Zionist filth – to the bosom of its celebrated Arab nation and restore the [Arab] nation to Palestine. It is the fastest way to cleanse the land of the viruses that have contaminated its soil, its skies, its air and its waters… This is the very difficult equation that has been recorded, and even etched, on the hearts and conscience of the lions of the revolution by the sacred expression: 'confrontation until martyrdom'… This is a call for the Palestinian leadership to leave the swamp of helplessness and surrender. It is a death penalty for the enterprise of arrangements [with Israel], concessions [to it] and abandonment [of the homeland], and for the leaders who signed the Oslo [Accords]. It is the burial of the shameful security cooperation, and the destruction of the spies, the informers and those who advocate co-existence and sleeping with the Zionist snake.
"First and foremost, this is a message to the mediators to stop disrespecting the Palestinian blood, in which the enemy's horses are wading up to their knees, just as the Crusaders' horses waded in the blood of the Muslims of Jerusalem. Throughout history no country ever escaped the yoke of imperialism by political or diplomatic means. Neither France nor Britain, nor even Belgium or Portugal, ever relinquished any colony in Africa, Asia or South America [of their free will]. On the contrary, Britain gave Arab Palestine to the Zionists, South Africa to the whites, and Kashmir to the Indians.
"Therefore, there is no choice – and this is what the courageous resistance proposes – but to implement the beautiful expression of 'confrontation until martyrdom' in order to restore the land and the honor. This is the shortest route to a life of dignity, and everything else is [tantamount to] assisting the enemy.
Come [wage] resistance and jihad."
