Jordanians demonstrate in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza and demand the closure of the Israeli embassy in Amman (Anatolia)

Since last week, popular calls began to besiege the Israeli occupation embassy in the Jordanian capital, Amman, in support of the Gaza Strip and in response to the massacres committed by the occupation in the vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital. Marches in response to these calls began on Sunday, April 24th. To gather in the vicinity of the embassy in large numbers, the likes of which the Jordanian street had not seen since the start of the aggression on the Gaza Strip after the seventh of October, except in its first days.

The next day, protests began in several Arab capitals, including Baghdad, Rabat, and later Cairo. Then the demonstrations began to expand in many Arab cities after they had subsided for a long time. What is striking here is that many of these demonstrations - such as those in Cairo, for example - were circulating slogans talking about responding to the calls of the Jordanian street, which indicates its influence in mobilizing the squares in the various Arab capitals. This is in addition to the interaction with the Jordanian street in the virtual space and communication platforms by Arab activists, and from various regions, including the Gaza Strip itself.

"Youth movement"

This was not the first time that the influence of the Jordanian street on the Arab street in general was referred to. In the second wave of the Arab Spring, which began in 2018, many analyzes attributed that spark to the protests that began in Jordan and the strike of May 30. 2018, in the movement launched by professional unions; Objection to the income tax law at the time, but it expanded to include various components, and gave the movement a youthful tone from all Jordanian governorates.

Political parties did not have that pivotal role in directing this movement, and gradually its demands expanded and went beyond professional unions, and the street began with demands for what was called: “changing the approach” in state administration; This led to the overthrow of Hani al-Mulqi's government, and its replacement with a government described as more capable of communicating with the street.

Protests followed in Arab capitals. In Iraq, in Sudan, where it overthrew the Bashir regime, and in Algeria, where it prompted Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to pledge not to run for a new presidential term, then activate Article 102 of the Constitution to remove him from the presidential seat. Finally, the overthrow of Saad Hariri's government in Lebanon after a series of protests.

Many academic analyzes have dealt with what has been called “street infection,” and Tunisia has been blamed for sparking the Arab Spring, while other analyzes have attributed street movements starting in 2010 to preparing the Arab street for activity after its movement following the Israeli war on Gaza in 2008-2009.

What is common here between these analyzes and many other analyses, is their emphasis on the idea that the street in the Arab countries - despite its peculiarities in each country and its circumstances - has complex communications, and is also greatly influenced by each other. This is a result of the existence of a platform of close communication between the components of the Arab world, the most important of which is that the Arab societies, whose lands extend over an area of ​​13 million square kilometers, have one common language, while the European Union, which extends over a third of this area, has 24 languages.

We do not refer to language here except as an example of the many cultural commonalities that document the communication of societies, in contrast to the cultural distances in the European Union model, despite their existence in a globalized space.

The cultural characteristics of the Arab world and its political circumstances make it easy for its societies to influence each other to a large extent, but the question remaining here remains: Why might one country or society be more influential than another? What are the determinants of this effect? How is this influential position achieved on the Arab scene? Why is Amman present today as an engine with great influence on the Arab street?

"Streets of Rage"

Here it is necessary to point out an important point before expanding into the analysis that concerns Jordan and its society, which is that this advanced role in influence did not begin to develop, according to our belief, except in the last ten years, coinciding with the decline in the roles of Arab capitals that had a central role in shaping and directing Arab public opinion. . On top of them are Damascus, Beirut, Cairo, and Baghdad.

Iraq's role began to decline since the First Gulf War, and this role was almost crushed with the occupation in 2003. As for Egypt, since 2013, its role began to decline. As a result of the restrictions imposed on public space, it can be said that he appeared to be killed at specific periods of time. As for Syria, with the path of the revolution turning to war, the disintegration of geography and society, and waves of refugees, any type of production has been disrupted. All of these factors have made the arena open for an advanced and new role for Amman.

Many studies have examined the impact of a specific place in igniting a revolution, but these studies have largely studied the role of a city, for example, or a specific square in activating other locations, or gaining momentum for popular action. Despite this; These hypotheses and limitations in studying the importance of squares and their symbolism remain usable in studying the importance of a country or capital in influencing the Arab context.

What can I say here; It is that, in the same way that Tahrir Square, for example, or Revolution Street - Habib Bourguiba Street - influenced both Egypt and Tunisia, it seems that Amman has a similar impact today on the Arab world.

In his book “Life as Politics,” the researcher known for dealing with the issues of the Arab Spring, Asef Bayat, discusses the importance of “streets of rage,” and gives them social and symbolic characteristics that increase the chances of their influence on their surroundings. He describes these squares as places that can bring together diverse crowds quickly, have momentum and cultural symbolism, are flexible and provide the opportunity for maneuver, and meeting in them represents a place that facilitates the spread of news and the transmission of feelings and attitudes.

The spirit of this idea is that these places represent a dense meeting point for great diversities, and possess high cultural symbolism. At the same time, Tahrir Square represents a meeting point for social diversities with class disparities, it also represents a space with cultural symbolism with the presence of cafés that represent a space for cultural dialogue in its surroundings. , such as the Rich Café, for example, and the presence of book stores in the streets leading to or close to it, such as, Talaat Harb and Qasr El Nil Streets; So that the field gains greater momentum with this symbolism, in addition to its strategic location that enables the meeting. At the same time, its location makes it the focus of attention and a source of news and views, and their spread via transportation. Added to this is the nature of the streets of the square, the flexibility of this area, and the ability to maneuver in it, gather, and withdraw in a way that reduces crowding losses.

All of these factors that were placed in describing the status of a field in influencing the vitality of a broad social movement, or a popular revolution, can be measured by it; To understand the role of a society or state in influencing the Arab street in general, and the popular mood demanding governments or solidarity with its common issues, here we ask how and what are the characteristics of the vital and influential field that Jordan has acquired?

First: Jordan as a meeting station:

We see that Oman possesses these characteristics related to its description as a meeting point for dense diversities, and this is in two parts: first; Related to Jordanian society and its internal structure, Jordan contains a state of dense and largely homogeneous diversity, which can be said; It is unique in its surroundings.

It is important to note that this mixture is not a completely ancient mixture. Despite the antiquity and history of many of its components, the final image of this highly diverse society that we see today is the result of the interactions of the last century, in contrast to the diversities formed by long centuries in surrounding countries.

Jordanian society contains religious diversities between Muslims and Christians, in addition to different ethnicities that include, in addition to Jordanians of Jordanian origins, Jordanians of Palestinian origins, and some Jordanians of Levantine and other origins, components such as Jordanian Circassians and Chechens. These components created a densely diverse society in a small geographical area and a short period of time, which developed qualitative and distinctive communication and presence tools. To be able to maintain its harmony and safety of interaction.

Social and geographical crossover

These high communication capabilities and presence enabled Jordanian society early to cross geographically and socially into the Arab world, virtually or in reality. In many studies and statistics, for example, the content coming out of Jordan appears as one of the most important, most present and influential contents on social media platforms on an Arab level.

secondly; In addition to these intrinsic elements are other elements related to the population of Jordan, and not only to its citizens. While the number of Jordanian citizens reaches 8 million, the population of Jordan at the end of 2023 reached approximately 11.4 million individuals, meaning that Jordanian society hosts the equivalent of half its population. From other Arab societies, a third of Jordan's population are not citizens. This large percentage of more than three million people includes Palestinian, Syrian, Iraqi, Yemeni, Libyan, and Egyptian components who have been settled within Jordanian society for many years as refugees, or as expatriate workers, especially Egyptians.

All this diversity among Jordan's population keeps the communities that have communities and residents within it in constant contact with it. It is worth noting here that the nature of the presence of these components in Jordan does not bear the formula of workers residing in the Gulf, as the nature of residency there is very different. In addition, the refugee in particular creates a different social space from that built by the resident, especially when he lives outside the camps and comes into contact with the host community. In addition to the peculiarities of Gulf society and the nature of its relations with its workers, which may not provide great opportunities for the integration of other components with it, what keeps the state of differentiation clearly present, which does not appear with such strictness in Jordanian society. Due to considerations related to space, nature of work, and many other circumstances.

In addition to this, Jordan is one of the countries that has three important sectors that attract expatriates and keep them in close contact with their surroundings. The first is; It is the health sector, which receives hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries every year, the majority of whom are Arabs or at least from the region, as Jordan received in 2023 alone approximately 200 thousand patients.

As for the second sector; It is the education sector. In light of the expansion of the educational sector, both private and public, Jordan received approximately 46 thousand international students in the academic year 2022/2023.

Finally; In recent years, and in light of the turmoil in the region around it, Jordan has turned into a central tourist destination in the region, and even globally. Tourism sector imports grew by 27% in 2023, making Jordan ninth in the world in terms of tourism sector growth.

Meeting and communication station

All of these elements that we mentioned - starting with the diversity of Jordanian society itself and its development of real and virtual communication tools, and the presence of large numbers of Arab residents and refugees who keep Jordanian society in touch with its Arab surroundings, in addition to the economic sectors that receive large numbers of Arabs - make Jordan A very important Arab meeting and communication station, supporting this geographical location as an intermediary between a large number of Arab countries.

Second: Jordan and symbolism:

One of the most important points discussed regarding the characteristics of vital and influential fields is that these fields possess cultural and political symbolism. Which is what can be said: Amman began collecting and developing it in the last decade. In light of the disappearance of Syria and the cinema that it produced, and in light of the political circumstances and restrictions, and the limitation of freedoms in Egypt, which affected its significant knowledge production in previous periods, in addition to the decline of Lebanon’s role, especially with regard to the media, book printing, and publishing houses in light of the successive crises that Exposure to it, Amman was developing at this time a distinctive book market, its publishing houses expanded significantly, its media and alternative media sector also expanded, and it played an important role in hosting conferences.

What is related to the book, publishing and media market does not represent a very significant milestone in raising the value of Jordan on the cultural level, despite the reduction in the distance between Amman, Cairo and Beirut from what it was previously in this context.

The most important impact remains, which is a new type of symbolism. While symbolism was linked at some point to books, cinema, and official media; After the Arab Spring, symbols have become more associated with social networking sites, where Jordanians seem to be achieving great success and a large presence. And youth conferences that bring together young people from various regions of the Arab world. This is what Amman achieved by turning into a receiving platform for cultural and political conferences and seminars.

With the growth of the NGO sector in Jordan, the Jordanian capital has become - without exaggeration - a “convention city.” Many may wonder about the large size of the hotel sector that Amman is crowded with, despite the small volume of tourism there. The secret here is that these hotels depend heavily on the work of conferences and local and international activities that Amman hosts. Which transformed the city into a space for broad public discussion, giving the city important cultural symbolism. By the way, this is what Tunisia was competing with before this role declined with the coming of Kais Saied to power.

In addition to the previous points, Jordan is located next to Palestine. As a result of its geographical and social connection to Palestine, Jordan acquires a distinctive status that often makes it the focus of attention, and this stimulates the follow-up of events there, especially those related to the Palestinian issue. To the point where it can sometimes be said: Oman is under the Arab microscope. This also gave it high symbolism in various national and Islamic literature, even on a simple emotional level.

Finally; you can say; From some of the points we mentioned in the previous axis, Jordan has gained another symbolism on the cultural level as a result of the presence of the health and education sectors in particular. It graduated large numbers of teachers, doctors, and engineers who worked in many regions, the most important of which is the Gulf, and they interacted not only with the Gulf community, but also with the communities of other societies there. The Jordanian and the Palestinian often represented an image, one might say; It is somewhat elitist as a result of the actions they did in the early stages in the Gulf, establishing a special cultural and social image that gave them a status that, regardless of its size, somewhat enhanced the level of influence and distinctive presence of this community.

Third: Jordan, flexibility and room for maneuver

One of the characteristics of vital and influential squares is that they are squares with flexible spaces that provide opportunities for maneuver, where crowds gather and can easily disperse in the event of a threat, and then are able to reassemble themselves. This characteristic allows the squares to remain operational without their movement being destroyed or activity stopping, and for them to remain in a state of back and forth, which allows the sustainability of their image as an actor. By projecting these spatial and related conditions into space, we can understand the role of the nature of political interaction in general in the Jordanian arena, and not just the street movement, in enhancing Jordan’s influence on its surroundings.

Establishing balances

Historically, the nature of the Jordanian political structure did not bear the characteristics of traditional totalitarian political systems. Rather, the practices of the official authorities always left a controlled room for maneuver and interaction with political forces. This stems from a complex social contract between the state and its complex society. It is first; It possessed, from an early age, political movements and a space for parliamentary political representation, and witnessed competitions between governments and these movements, in addition to competitions between these movements. Secondly; The political situation in Jordan - despite it being a kingdom in which the royal institution has an executive weight, and whose strength is clearly evident in the features of governance - is nevertheless not limited to it as a sole actor. Rather, the monarchy plays a role that is primarily based on establishing balances between all the political and social diversities that we mentioned. to it previously, while maintaining an advanced position of strength.

These characteristics were constantly pushing towards states of expansion and decline of the public space and political sphere in the country according to the regional conditions it was experiencing, in addition to the balances of power within it. This is a characteristic of the Jordanian street that seems to have been seriously addressed in some studies and research, as Larry Diamond talks about in his book “The Spirit of Democracy,” about how both Jordan and Egypt during the Mubarak era followed a similar approach in expanding and narrowing the public space circumstantially, including It guarantees the interests of the political system and prevents the situation from deteriorating into severe and final clashes.

This image made the Jordanian political space appear more flexible compared to the Arab environment. In Jordan, there are no cases of executions of political leaders, or their bans, as seen in many Arab countries. Whereas if there is an appreciation of the danger of a political body, state institutions do not enter into a direct clash with it, but rather follow strategies of containment, or gradual dismantling if the latter fails.

Jordan has not known cases of bloody clashes in its squares or in its courts, which made the opportunities to move and come and go constantly within it possible, and at relatively low costs. This image kept Jordan as an arena of continuous interaction in which the public space was not completely destroyed, even if its effectiveness declined by making parties weak in the political equation, for example, or by election laws that limited political representation at the expense of representing social structures, which made the role of the parliaments a service role in periods Multiple.

This continuity, regardless of its varying effectiveness across the different stages, helped to transmit the legacy of political work between different generations, as their connection was not completely cut off despite the disparities and differences between them, and many experiences were developed, including those that built on the previous experiences by reconciling with it, or criticizing it and working to renew it. ; However, in both cases, the connection between the experiences of generations remains important, which was provided by the absence of a complete cessation of political action in the country. As a result of this continuity, special street skills and distinctive tools of expression were developed, and Jordanian activity was maintained in the Arab arena, especially with a clear state of high skill and heavy presence on social media sites.

A motivating and encouraging role

you can say; Together, these previous factors gave Jordan an important role in influencing the Arab arena as a whole, and made its ability to mobilize other societies and push them toward action greater than others. It is worth noting here that we do not believe that the authorities and institutions of the Jordanian state are unaware of these characteristics that its street possesses. Rather, in many cases, they have invested in them and benefited from them in the face of unbearable regional equations and economic pressures that required the delivery of certain messages to the region and abroad, and this is what we believe. This happened with the 2018 movement, for example, which coincided with the challenges of the Deal of the Century and a major economic crisis in Jordan. What prompted Jordan to deal with the street in a certain way, allowed its influence to spread abroad, in an attempt to deliver messages to its neighbors and international allies to move towards stopping the dangers that the political regime saw, or to contribute to overcoming its economic crisis.

One of the most important things the street relies on to stimulate its movement and revitalize it is hope, which plays an essential role in convincing and pushing the popular bases towards action. The Arab region has gone through a period since the reversal of the Arab Spring and its transformation into a group of coups and civil conflicts, in which a state of heavy disappointment was established that discouraged the movement of societies. Models of the collapse of revolutions, their transformation into complete chaos, and the fragmentation of societies have become a present image in the popular imagination. Many of the political forces that benefited from the suppression of the wave of spring revolutions worked to perpetuate this image of failure and the undesirable consequences of the street movement, to deny the feasibility of the movement and disrupt it. While one moment of re-establishing the feasibility presented by the Jordanian street in 2018 by being able to overthrow a government without paying bills fragments society and destroys the state; It seemed to have had an important role in establishing a second wave of revolutions in many Arab countries.

We must emphasize here that we are not saying; The movement of the Jordanian street was the reason for the movement of those streets, insofar as it played in parallel with their circumstances, the tension of their reality, and the internal reasons they possess for the revolution. The role of motivator and encourager. It is this duality that the Spanish sociologist Manuel Castells refers to in his book “Networks of Anger and Hope,” and many important fictional and cinematic works have also referred to him, which explained the effects of fear and hope on activating or stimulating action, the idea of ​​contagion, and finding role models. We believe that the movements on the Jordanian scene, especially with regard to Palestine, have spread some hope to other societies, and created a state of motivation due to Jordan’s connection to the Palestinian issue in terms of political, geographical and social considerations that keep it in the spotlight.

corporate responsibility

We conclude here that each Arab society has distinct characteristics and special circumstances that determine the way it interacts with its reality and its tendency towards using street tools or others, and push it towards moving in certain patterns. In response to his demands and internal interactions. However, it seems that Arab societies have a broad common base, which makes their mutual interaction and influence with each other a common and clear scene, and it seems that certain societies have a greater influence than others on the Arab whole. As a result of certain characteristics it possesses, either as a result of its internal context or as a result of specific regional conditions that increase its presence and influence. But this influence cannot generate the movement of societies, nor create their movement, as much as it plays a stimulating role if the conditions and need for movements exist in these societies. It is a role that - as a result of the intersection of a set of circumstances - seems to have become today linked to Jordanian society, its streets, and its movements.

In conclusion; We must point out that these characteristics - which certain streets possess, as is the case in Jordan today, and which give societies and states an active role and strengths on the Arab scene - at the same time place them in a position of responsibility for the image they build of their movement and the extent of its success and balance, which will be transmitted to societies. others and affected them and their morale.

It stands as an influencer on the verge of building hope or creating fear, and on the verge of beautifying or distorting the idea of ​​political action in the street or elsewhere, and influencing the extent to which it is useful or not in the imagination of the environment in which it influences. It is a responsibility shared by the grassroots and official institutions. In addition, these characteristics also place these countries and societies that possess this ability to influence in a state of danger sometimes, especially the danger of external interventions that may seek to use the power of their streets to deliver certain messages, or target political components and actors, which raises the level of responsibility. Which we mentioned previously.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.