Synne Furnes Bjerkestrand & Bayan Abu Ta’ema
Mondoweiss / October 11, 2024
Jordan has witnessed increasing popular protests expressing solidarity with Gaza and demanding an end to normalization with Israel. The Jordanian government has responded with an unprecedented crackdown on protests and free expression.
Jordanian authorities have arrested thousands of citizens since October 7 last year in an increasingly repressive climate in the country. Despite the increasing repression, the people have continued to take to the streets every week to protest the ongoing US-funded Israeli genocide in Gaza.
Raya Sharbain, a digital security trainer, tells Mondoweiss that the crackdown on citizens, journalists, and activists is unprecedented. “It is difficult to know where the red line is. It seems that any slight criticism can lead to interrogation or detention,” Sharbain says.
Hundreds have also been charged under Jordan’s 2023 Cybercrimes Law, enacted in August of last year, which expands upon an older law from 2015. The infractions that brought about the charges vary; some are for posts on social media that expressed support for the Palestinian cause, while others are posts that directly criticized the Jordanian authorities and called into question Jordan’s peace deal with Israel, which has been in effect since 1994. People who have called for peaceful protests and public strikes have also been arrested.
When the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza started a year ago in response to Hamas’s “Al-Aqsa Flood” offensive on October 7, Jordan quickly became the site of regular and widespread protests in solidarity with Gaza. Most notably, a Jordanian truck driver, Maher al-Jazi, who belonged to a traditional clan from the Ma’in region, carried out a shooting attack at the King Hussein Border Crossing last September, killing three Israeli security personnel. Al-Jazi received widespread popular support in Jordan and was hailed as a hero and martyr by Jordanians and Palestinians alike.
But October 7 also marked the start of an increasing climate of repression in the country.
Thousands arrested
Protests have been held almost weekly in Amman since October last year. Jordan is widely considered to be the largest gathering of Palestinians in the world outside of historic Palestine, with official estimates citing three million Palestinians in Jordan — the real number is thought to be much higher — out of a total population of about 11 million, including about 1.3 million refugees from neighbouring countries.
Both Jordanians and Palestinians in the country have shown solidarity with the Palestinian cause and against the ongoing genocide through social media posts, protests, and various forms of activism.
But despite Jordan’s official position through its foreign minister as an ally and advocate of the Palestinians, the reality on the ground in the country is a much less hospitable environment for ordinary people living in Jordan to express similar opinions or criticisms of their country’s response.
Raya Sharbain was herself detained in April this year under the Cybercrimes Law at the Queen Alia airport outside of Amman while traveling to a conference.
“I was released after five days because they could not find a valid reason to keep me detained. After I got out, I received a one-month travel ban,” Sharbain says.
Sharbain was detained under Article 15 of the Cybercrimes Law after going to one of the protests. “They have detained hundreds of people who went down to the protests, most of whom did not expect to find themselves behind bars,” she says.
According to Amnesty International, 1,500 people have been arrested in Jordan between October 2023 and April 2024. Around 500 of them were detained in March during protests in front of the Israeli embassy in Amman.
Hala Ahed, a lawyer working with those detained over the last year, tells Mondoweiss that the number of detainees is probably much higher almost one year later.
“The numbers are high and difficult to count, but they have exceeded 3,000 people,” she estimates. “Their crimes included illegal gatherings, resisting the security forces in Amman, and cybercrimes.”
Ahed clarifies that the court did not ultimately find those charged with illegal gatherings and resisting security forces guilty.
‘Journalists have become voiceless’
But one of the reasons why the recent wave of arrests has raised concerns among Jordanians is the use of the Cybercrimes Law as a pretext for repressing and stifling dissent.
Enacted in August 2023, the law introduced significant amendments to a previous 2015 law, giving Jordanian authorities increased power to monitor online content. This has raised concerns among human rights advocates about potential restrictions on freedom of speech and expression.
According to the Amnesty International report, the law “introduces harsh penalties for overly broad and vaguely defined offenses such as ‘spreading fake news,’ ‘provoking strife,’ ‘threatening societal peace,’ and ‘contempt for religions,’ which have been used to criminalize forms of expression protected under international law.”
“We have had a huge problem with freedom of expression and repression for centuries, but this law marked the start of an even darker period” – Muhammad Shamma, Reporters Without Borders
Amnesty documented 15 cases of individuals who were prosecuted under the law, with all of the arrests carried out by the authorities without a warrant, and without informing the arrestees of the reasons for their charges and questioning them without a lawyer.
Being detained also comes with expenses, and people who have been detained under the law and who were later charged guilty had to pay a minimum fee of 5,000 Jordanian dinars ($7,055).
“The authorities will also take your phone, and you do not get it back when you are released. They make it expensive just to express yourself,” Sharbain adds.
After the detainees are released, they risk having to deal with the case for months or years. “There will be months on end of dealing with the court and what follows with that,” Sharbain says.
In August 2023, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and eighteen other civil society organizations issued a statement urging the rejection of the new Cybercrimes Law, expressing their concerns that the law would “severely restrict human rights across the country.”
Muhammad Shamma, a reporter for Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in Jordan, has been following the situation closely for years. But he has never seen things get this ominous before.
“The Cybercrimes Law is a very dark part of our history in Jordan,” Shamma tells Mondoweiss. “We have had a huge problem with freedom of expression and repression for centuries, but this law marked the start of an even darker period.”
Shamma explains that the climate of repression in Jordan started getting worse during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when Jordan enacted emergency laws that curtailed public freedoms. Rights groups criticized the emergency laws for being used as an excuse to suppress critical voices. They were abolished in 2023 before the new Cybercrimes Law was enacted.
“People were calling me to ask how they could self-censor and disable social media accounts” – Raya Sharbain
“Although it was bad before, I never expected it to get to this point. It is in general very depressing, the journalists have become voiceless,” Shamma says.
“After the law was implemented in August 2023, there was an entire media blackout where no one was posting anything out of fear. People were calling me to ask how they could self-censor and disable social media accounts,” Raya Sharbain tells Mondoweiss.
On September 13 this year, fourteen digital rights and free expression organizations published a letter calling for Jordan to scrap the law.
In the letter, the organizations wrote that the Cybercrimes Law has “proven to be a tool for state repression, stifling dissent and curtailing the human rights of individuals online, including the rights to freedom of expression, access to information, and privacy.” The letter also emphasized how the law has created an “environment of self-censorship and fear.”
These organizations, both local and international, called for the new Jordanian Parliament to repeal or substantially amend the law while demanding the release of journalists, human rights defenders, and all those “arrested and prosecuted solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression.”
During the parliamentary elections this September, Noor Abu Goush, a PhD candidate in Political Science and a youth activist from the Muslim Brotherhood’s political faction, the Islamic Action Front, got a seat in the new parliament.
The Islamic Action Front Party’s youth sector, along with several Jordanian parties and independents, was at the forefront of the demonstrations that continue to take place in Amman.
In the campaign leading up to the elections, Abu Goush and her party stated that they would seek to revisit the Cybercrimes Law and the administrative detention laws with the aim of abolishing them if they gain parliamentary seats.
Abu Goush tells Mondoweiss that the problem with freedom of expression in Jordan lies within the Cybercrimes Law, which was not intended to be used for silencing voices.
“Unfortunately, what we have witnessed is that many of those arrested under this law were detained because of political opinions they shared on social media,” Abu Goush explains. “This is an issue that needs to be reconsidered.”
Abu Goush explains that the Islamic Action Front Party’s agenda includes revising the Cybercrimes Law. The party also aims to revise the 1954 Crime Prevention Law and the administrative detention law, which gives local governors the authority to detain individuals with limited judicial review.
Hala Ahed tells Mondoweiss that the law has been practiced against demonstrators and activists to a “large extent since October 7 in a manner that violates the law.”
The journalists and activists arrested under the Cybercrimes Law
Four journalists have been convicted under the Cybercrimes Law since September last year. Two of them, Hiba Abu Taha and Ahmad Hassan al-Zoubi, are still in prison.
Freelance journalist Hiba Abu Taha was sentenced in June to one year in prison for violating the law after the Jordan Media Commission filed a complaint accusing her of “inciting sedition and discord among members of the community,” “threatening the peace of the community,” and “inciting violence.”
This came just a few days after she published an opinion piece on April 28 on the Annasher website. According to Reporters Without Borders, Abu Taha became the first journalist to be convicted under the Cybercrimes Law.
Satirical columnist Ahmad Hassan al-Zoubi is the last person convicted under the old 2015 Cybercrime Law, and according to RSF, he is also the most “severely punished.”
Al-Zoubi is the founder of the Sawalif news website and a columnist for the state-owned newspaper, Al-Rai. He was imprisoned in July and was sentenced to one year for criticizing the Jordanian authorities on social media.
According to information obtained by RSF, Al-Zoubi’s health has deteriorated due to the “harsh conditions of the overcrowded prison,” known as the “Marka Reform and Rehabilitation Center.”
Muhammad Shamma and RSF have repeatedly called for the release of Hiba Abu Taha and Ahmad Hassan al-Zoubi. RSF has deemed the law “draconian.”
Freelance journalist Khairuddin al-Jabri was detained in March for a video he shared that was critical of the genocide in Gaza, but was released after a week. He was charged under similar allegations of “inciting discord” and “defamation of a public authority.” Freelance journalist Nour Haddad was detained for a week in December 2023 under similar charges.
Human rights defender and lawyer Moutaz Awad was detained in February this year over posts on X criticizing Arab countries’ trade deals with the Israeli occupation. In July, he was fined 5,000 JOD (around $7,000).
People who have been organizing the protests have also been arrested. Among them is Khaled al-Natour, a political and youth activist and founding member of the Jordanian Youth Gathering to Support the Palestinian Resistance. The group, which was formed after October 7, consists of fourteen groups with different orientations, including leftist, nationalist, and Islamic factions.
In an interview with Mondoweiss in April, al-Natour says that the Gathering’s goals are “not only related to the war on Gaza but also to the danger of the occupation for Jordan,” citing Israel’s intentions to “annex the Jordan Valley to the borders of the occupying state.”
The people demand an end to normalization
Despite the arrests, people have continued to take to the streets to protest against the genocide. They have been calling for an end to Jordan’s 1994 Wadi Araba peace treaty with Israel.
The protests take place every Friday in downtown Amman. Lately, protests have increased against the latest Israeli aggression in Lebanon, which as of the time of writing has killed over 2,000 Lebanese people.
During Ramadan this year, an average of 6,000 to 10,000 people gathered every night in front of the Israeli embassy to protest the genocide in Gaza and call for an end to all normalization with Israel.
The protesters have made several demands: among them an economic boycott of Israel, canceling all agreements, and stopping the export of vegetables.
Another demand is the cancelation of the defense agreement between Jordan and the U.S., which was signed in 2021. The Israeli ambassador to Jordan left the country in October last year, and the embassy no longer has a diplomatic mission.
Raya Sharbain says she has been shocked by how the authorities have arrested so many people.
“They are detaining people from the left, right, and center, people from all backgrounds,” she explains. “If you go to the protests, you can face beating from the security forces. Before it was more predictable who would get detained, but now it is everyone regardless if they play a leading role or not in the political movements.”
Despite the calls from international organizations to end the repression of protesters and journalists, Sharbain does not think this will change the authorities’ approach.
“I do not think international organizations condemning this will change things. It is a continuous fight for the people,” Sharbain says. “The only way to change this is through the people that are living in Jordan.”
Sharbain believes that despite the increasing repression, she believes these developments will lead to even more protests.
“I might sound naive, but the more repression the authorities practice, the more the protest movement will learn to protect itself and gain knowledge from the experiences,” she says.
Synne Furnes Bjerkestrand is an independent journalist based in Amman, Jordan. She has written for Norwegian media, Al Jazeera, and Middle East Eye, and is currently finishing her master’s degree in journalism with a focus on the framing of the genocide in Gaza in western media.
Bayan Abu Ta’ema is an independent Palestinian storyteller and filmmaker based in Jordan. She produces audible and visual journalism and documentary films, often related to human rights.
