PETRA — Peering over the cliffs of Petra’s High Place of Sacrifice, a towering vantage point above the ancient ruins of Jordan’s most popular destination, the virtually tourist-free quiet was both a special treat and a bit eerie.
Since I was a kid, I had wanted to visit Petra — a UNESCO World Heritage Site listed as one of the “New Seven Wonders of the World” — after my father had told me that it was the spot where the Holy Grail was found at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The chance came this spring after spotting a round-trip Ryanair flight to Amman, for just 108 Euros from Prague where I’m studying.
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The extra pleasant travel conditions, however, couldn’t hide the reality that the lack of crowds and cheap prices were linked to the brutal war in Gaza and the ripple effect it has had on Jordanian society.
Few places outside of Gaza have been affected by the war as much as Jordan. Tourism, for example, is a critical sector of the Jordanian economy (roughly 18% of GDP in the first nine months of 2023) and has plummeted since the Hamas attack in October. Hotel incomes have lagged 66% behind expected during some months of the war, and Jordanian tour guides have been crushed by cancellations — some claiming as many as 80% of their bookings having been expunged.
Ryanair, a major air carrier of European tourists to Jordan, has drastically cut down on and canceled its routes to the country from many European cities such as Vienna, Rome and Budapest due to a reported major lack of demand. In fact, we later found out that our late-March flight back to Prague was one of the airline’s last between the Czech and Jordanian capitals until further notice.
Economic hit
Before the war broke out, Jordan’s tourism industry was booming, according to Jordanian state-sponsored daily The Jordan Times.
Although the economic hit has been punishing, no doubt the most difficult challenge of the war for the country has been political — given that Jordan hosts the largest portion of the Palestinian diaspora on Earth.
Some estimates claim that 60% of Jordan’s population are Palestinian or of Palestinian origin.
“If you are asking where I currently live, yes I live in Amman. But if you are asking where I am from, I am Palestinian,” one cab driver in the capital told me. “My family is from Palestine and was forced to leave during the unfortunate events of 1948.”
Protests against Israel’s war in Gaza have rocked Jordan since October 7, particularly around the Israeli embassy in Amman. Highly publicized, the demonstrations represent the complexity of Jordan’s position as the war rages on.
Hamas excitement
The Jordanian government disapproves of the demonstrations, claiming that Hamas is behind their incitement and that the pro-Palestinian protestors are placing “ideological considerations over national interests.” The activists claim, on the other hand, that the Jordanian government is not doing enough to oppose Israel’s military campaign, which the Gaza Health Ministry says has killed over 35,000 Palestinians and injured at least 75,000.
Jordan is also a key ally of the United States and hosts American military bases and personnel.
Some estimates claim that as many as 60% of Jordan’s population are Palestinian or of Palestinian origin, including Jordanian King Abdullah II’s wife Queen Rania.
Towards the beginning of the war, the Jordanian government withdrew its ambassador from Tel Aviv and demanded that the Israeli counterparts leave Amman. Furthermore, Abdullah II has been heavily involved in securing aid for Palestinians in Gaza, publicizing many of his government’s actions such as a February airdrop that he personally participated in. Amman also canceled previously negotiated pipeline deals intended to transfer water and energy between Jordan and Israel.
Nonetheless, Jordan has maintained its diplomatic ties with Israel throughout the war and has upheld its part of the 1994 Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty — a major point of contention with the pro-Palestinian protestors who view the normalization agreement as a betrayal of the Palestinian cause. Jordan is also a key ally of the United States — Israel’s primary backer — and hosts American military bases and personnel.
Jordan faced further questions from many pro-Palestinian activists after appearing to defend Israel against Iran by shooting down Tehran’s missiles over its territory headed for the country during an April missile strike. Jordanian officials quickly addressed the criticism, claiming that the projectiles were intercepted in the interest of Jordan’s self-defense.
The true number of Palestinians in Jordan is unknown and not part of the official census, perhaps by design, as the Jordanian government has been accused of working to suppress the fact that the majority of the kingdom is inhabited by refugees or descendants of refugees who fled west during the 1948 and 1967 Arab-Israeli wars. Amman has even been accused of removing Jordanian citizenship from citizens of Palestinian origin in order to maintain a “demographic balance.”
Alternative Palestinian state
Essentially, the Jordanian government fears what some Israelis publicly push for — that the kingdom becomes the alternative Palestinian state and that the Hashemites are overthrown by its majority Palestinian population. Other Israelis however, reluctantly prefer the Hashemites and fear a powerful Palestinian state on its borders.
it is unsurprising that Jordan’s red line on Israel’s deplacement of Gazans has been maintained.
In 1951, Jordan’s first king, King Abdullah I, was assassinated by a Palestinian nationalist for engaging in talks with Israel. By 1970, after a new wave of Palestinian refugees entered Jordan following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, tensions between Palestinian groups and the Jordanian government boiled over into the Black September incident. Factions of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in refugee camps outside Amman had been calling for the overthrow of King Hussein — prompting the Jordanian military to violently dispose of the PLO strongholds. Thousands were killed and the PLO was relocated to Lebanon.
Under this context, it is unsurprising that Jordan’s red line on Israel’s deplacement of Gazans has been maintained throughout the current conflict, particularly as Jordan would be the second most likely destination after Egypt.
What’s clear in Jordan, as in the rest of the region — and also those of us who are farther away— that the failure to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is no longer something we hope will just go away.