Jordanians protests demonsrate against Kerry'
Jordanians protests demonsrate against Kerry'Reuters

Hundreds of Islamists rallied in Jordan on Friday against a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), The Associated Press (AP) reported.

The largest protest in months came hours before Jordan's King Abdullah was scheduled to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama in California.

The 1,200 protesters affiliated with Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood, who demonstrated against Secretary of State John Kerry’s peace framework, also burned the Israeli flag, reported AP.

The protesters also demanded that King Abdullah II "revoke the peace treaty with the Zionists," the report said, referring to the 1994 peace treaty signed between the two countries.

The protest comes amid reports of tensions in the Hashemite Kingdom, which is reportedly nervous over the implications of an Israel-PA peace treaty for King Abdullah II's tenuous hold over the country.

Abdullah is a member of the ruling Hashemite family that was brought in from Saudi Arabia by the British Mandate, when they gave King Hussein rule over the land east of the Jordan River in 1946 - land that was allotted for the Jewish state by the original League of Nations mandate.

Currently 60-80% of Jordan's citizens identify as "Palestinians," and remain in a secondary status with many professions blocked to them by the Jordanian monarchy, which hopes to "return" them over the river from where they claim their ancestors left around Israel's War of Independence.

The meeting between the King and Obama will focus about the effects of a peace deal on Jordan, particularly in terms of the demands to “return Palestinian refugees.”

Jordan's government is hoping to be spared by a popular uprising by having the repressed "Palestinians" removed and sent to Israel as part of the deal.

In January, Jordan expressed its desire to be more closely involved in the talks, and was briefed by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas about the talks. Last Saturday, Jordan declared that it refuses Israel's demand to be recognized as a Jewish state.

Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood calls for Israel's annihilation through armed struggle, noted AP.

In 2012, the Brotherhood  sharply criticized the naming of a new ambassador to Israel, saying the move was “an act of provocation towards Jordanians.”

In 2011, Israel temporarily evacuated its embassy in Amman after calls by Jordanian activists for a ‘million man march’ near the embassy building.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)