It is a commonly occurring phenomenon in the Arab world that the professional organizations are most virulently anti-Israel and, in Egypt and Jordan, leaders in anti-normalization with the Jewish State. Last week, the Jordan Times reported, ?More than 500 engineers attending the first meeting of the expanded Jordanian Engineers' Association (JEA) anti-normalisation committee?? The attendance level was particularly large, leading JEA leaders to say that they would expand the committee, to show that ?all engineers... were united in their feelings against normalisation.? The Times also reported that the ?move was also made in support of three JEA anti-normalisation committee members detained since Oct. 7.?
The JEA is reported to be Jordan?s largest and most wealthy professional organization, boasting 48,000 members. With that kind of weight, the organization paid little heed to Jordanian government warnings, that ?the association dissolve the anti-normalisation committee or face possible dissolution.? Members of the committee said that it ?protects the Kingdom from ?Zionist threats.?? This despite the detention of three committee members whose protection the Kingdom apparently felt it could do without. They are imprisoned ?for their alleged membership in the associations' anti-normalisation committee, a group the government has described as illegal. They are alleged to have distributed anti-Israel posters to schoolchildren,? reports the Jordan Times. That is small change. Last year, the newspaper reminded readers, ?22 activists were arrested for anti-normalisation activities but released before trial.? The Kingdom?s government, the Times continues, maintains that ?the associations' anti-normalisation committee and its activities were a bold violation of the law that ?would not be tolerated.??
The JEA is reported to be Jordan?s largest and most wealthy professional organization, boasting 48,000 members. With that kind of weight, the organization paid little heed to Jordanian government warnings, that ?the association dissolve the anti-normalisation committee or face possible dissolution.? Members of the committee said that it ?protects the Kingdom from ?Zionist threats.?? This despite the detention of three committee members whose protection the Kingdom apparently felt it could do without. They are imprisoned ?for their alleged membership in the associations' anti-normalisation committee, a group the government has described as illegal. They are alleged to have distributed anti-Israel posters to schoolchildren,? reports the Jordan Times. That is small change. Last year, the newspaper reminded readers, ?22 activists were arrested for anti-normalisation activities but released before trial.? The Kingdom?s government, the Times continues, maintains that ?the associations' anti-normalisation committee and its activities were a bold violation of the law that ?would not be tolerated.??