“Abuse of a country with relations with Jordan.” That’s what a young man stands accused of in the Irbid, after drawing an Israeli flag on one of the city’s main streets, the Palestinian news agency Qudsnet reported. Pictures circulated on social media show a group of young men standing on the flag while taking a selfie:
#عاجل#إربد: تحويل شاب رسم علم إسرائيل على الشارع إلى المدعي العام غدا (صور)https://t.co/ORH66yK1XY#الغد #عمان #الاردن #jo #amman pic.twitter.com/yYp5EcUbeX
— جريدة الغد (@AlghadNews) March 18, 2017
#Breaking #Irbid: Transfer of youth who drew Israeli flag on the street to the general prosecutor tomorrow
Another picture posted on Twitter showed a number of young men standing on the flag, with one holding cans of spray paint:
#صورة : الأن من #الأردن .
— غزة الآن - Gaza Now (@gazalnps) March 17, 2017
رسم علم الاحتلال الإسرائيلي على مدخل لواء بني كنانة شمال مدينة #إربد . pic.twitter.com/YW4JbKFgL8
Picture: Now from Jordan. Drawing of a flag of the Israeli occupation on the entrance to Bani Kanineh department in the north of Irbid city.
In Arab societies, standing on or hitting something with the sole of your shoe is generally thought to be a sign of deep disrespect.
The Jordanian newspaper al-Ghad reported that the young man was not yet under formal arrest, but was being interrogated and would be transferred to the prosecutor on Sunday. A Jordanian government spokesman had not responded to a request for comment by Al Bawaba at the time of publication.
The incident came after part of an Israeli rocket fell in the city early on Friday morning. It had intercepted Syrian missiles fired at Israeli warplanes, as this image shows:
بالفيديو والصور.. ناشطون: جسم غريب يسقط في إربد https://t.co/TkdwlJZT7I pic.twitter.com/dwRRuBulzX
— رؤيا (@RoyaTV) March 17, 2017
In video and in pictures: Activists: Unknown body falls in Irbid.
The arrest is another sign of tensions between the government of Jordan and its citizens over the country’s relations with Israel. The two governments signed a peace treaty in 1994, and cooperate militarily and economically. However, around half of Jordanian citizens are originally Palestinian, and many remain deeply opposed to the two governments’ relations.
Protests were held in Jordan in September 2016 against a deal to import gas from Israel. Ahmed Daqamseh, a former Jordanian soldier who shot and killed seven Israeli schoolgirls in 1997, was widely praised as a “hero” on Jordanian social media after he was released from prison earlier this month.
