[ad_1]
Jordanian officers have expressed anger and frustration with Israel’s transfer to make the most of its Ramon Airport in southern Israel for Palestinian journey overseas, claiming it jeopardizes the dominion’s financial pursuits, violates Jordanian airspace sovereignty, and normalizes the Palestinians’ plight.
Regardless of the assembly final month between Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Amman and the spirit of cooperation it prompt, statements by Jordanian officers and reviews from the Arab world indicated that relations between two nations — which have been at peace since 1994 and share a big land border — may very well be getting into a tense section.
Till lately, Palestinians wishing to fly overseas had been required to journey to Jordan and board a flight there, or to safe a hard-to-come-by entry allow into Israel to fly from Ben Gurion Airport.
However in an effort to alleviate heavy crowding at King Hussein Crossing — the West Financial institution’s sole crossing with Jordan — Israel’s Airports Authority lately introduced an initiative permitting Palestinians to fly to Turkey by means of Ramon Airport and board connecting flights there.
Whereas the unique plan for Turkish Airways to function the route was delayed, Israel’s Arkia Airways stepped in to function the primary flight for Palestinians from Ramon Airport to Cyprus on Monday.
Continued flights will doubtlessly imply much less Palestinian motion by means of Jordan and, subsequently, much less revenue for the dominion from tourism.
Palestinian residents of the West Financial institution are seen able to board a flight at Ramon Airport on August 22, 2022. (Flash90)
Jordan’s financial pursuits
In line with Jordan’s Society of Tourism and Journey Brokers, some 500,000 Palestinian vacationers enter the nation annually by way of the King Hussein Bridge, often known as the Allenby Bridge, for tourism or transit functions.
Opening Ramon Airport for Palestinian vacationers may lower the variety of Palestinians getting into Jordan by 55-65 %, in response to Jordanian media.
That is perceived by some Jordanian officers and analysts as opposing the spirit of cooperation and peace between the 2 nations.
The London-based pan-Arab information outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed cited on Thursday a press release by Jordanian lawmaker Samih Al-Maaytah criticizing Monday’s flight to Cyprus with Palestinian passengers, charging that it’ll come on the expense of transit by means of Jordan.
Ramon Airport throughout the official opening ceremony, January 21, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
His assertion was echoed by a member of Jordan’s Parliament, Khalil Attia, who lately mentioned that Israel’s plan to permit West Financial institution residents to make use of Ramon Airport would hurt Jordan’s native airways, “which have lengthy relied on the switch of a giant proportion of the Palestinians to neighboring nations.”
The transfer may additionally hurt or delay current strategic tasks between Israel and its neighbor, comparable to exporting Israeli gasoline to Europe by means of the Arab Fuel Pipeline that goes by means of Jordan, in response to analysts cited Wednesday by Qatar’s state-owned Al Jazeera information community.
Passengers sit in a ready room on the Jordanian facet of the King Hussein Bridge (often known as Allenby Bridge) crossing between the West Financial institution and Jordan on July 19, 2022. (Khalil Mazraawi/AFP)
Jordanian sovereignty
These analysts had been additionally quoted as saying that Ramon Airport violates Jordan’s sovereignty because it “impacts the air navigation of King Hussein Airport within the metropolis of Aqaba, southern Jordan, and enters Jordanian airspace throughout the touchdown and take-off of Israeli and incoming planes.”
Talking to Al Jazeera on the problem, former Jordanian data minister Muhammad al-Momani mentioned that Israeli-Jordanian cooperation was primarily based on the concept of “working King Hussein Worldwide Airport in Aqaba, moderately than establishing a [new] airport,” including that two competing airports within the area will “have an effect on the horizon of the peace course of between the 2 nations.”
Jordan had opposed the institution of Ramon Airport from the outset, citing its proximity to King Hussein Airport. The dominion raised its issues with the Worldwide Civil Aviation Group in 2019.
Normalizing the Palestinian problem
In line with the reviews, Jordan additionally considers Israel’s transfer in regard to Palestinian worldwide journey from inside its territory an try to normalize the Palestinians’ present scenario and distance the prospect of a long-term resolution.
A aircraft on the tarmac of King Hussein airport serving the border metropolis of Aqaba. (Display screen seize: YouTube)
Through the official inauguration of an influence plant within the Jordan Valley meant to extend electrical energy provide to Palestinians within the West Financial institution, Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher Al Khasawneh reiterated Wednesday his nation’s help for the Palestinian trigger.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh mentioned throughout the occasion that “neither Ramon airport nor every other airport is an alternative choice to our depth of relations with Jordan when it comes to transport and motion,” arguing that had Israel really needed to ease restrictions on Palestinians it will have reopened a global airport positioned between Jerusalem and Ramallah. The airport was closed for civilian site visitors after the Second Intifada erupted in 2000.
On social media, Jordanian activists protested the primary flight of Palestinian by way of Ramon Airport alongside the hashtag “#Palestinian_normalization_betrayal.”
In line with Al Jazeera, some Jordanian activists referred to using Ramon Airport by Palestinians as “treason and a stabbing behind Jordan for all of the positions it took with the Palestinian folks in defending their simply trigger.”
[ad_2]
Source link
