The Jordanian government renewed on Wednesday a six-month old ban on all sorts of demonstrations or sit-ins, amid new waves of escalation in the Palestinian territories, reported the Jordan Times newspaper.
Amman Governor Talaat Nawayseh issued regulations to the capital's police chief, banning "any marches or sit-ins in order to avoid any mishaps across the country,” according to a statement, cited by the official Petra news agency.
Nawayseh said in a memo to the police commander that "marches pose a threat to security and stability and hamper the people's interests."
The agency did not say why the new regulations were issued.
It noted, however, that political parties and unions had plans to stage a march next Saturday from the Professional Associations Complex to the nearby United Nations premises, said the paper.
For their part, the organizers vowed to pursue their projected march on Saturday.
"We will organize the march which is our constitutional right," Azzam Hneidi, president of the Associations Council, told the paper.
Hneidi noted that the organizers, who "informed" the authorities about the march, will guarantee that there will not be a breach of security.
"The march, in solidarity with the Palestinians against Israeli aggression, will mark the anniversary of the [1948] Deir Yassin massacre in which hundreds of Palestinians were slaughtered at the hands of Jewish militants," he told the Jordan Times.
Anti-Israel demonstrations and protests have been running high in Jordan since the outbreak of Al Aqsa Intifada on September 28.
Nawayseh's regulations came five days after scores of residents at the Wihdat refugee camp took to the camp's narrow streets to mark Land Day, said the paper.
The march proceeded for 90 minutes after Friday's prayers without incident. Riot police were deployed in the area as a precautionary measure.
Several days after the outbreak of the Intifada, the government banned demonstrations following the killing of young man at the Baqaa refugee camp, in one of dozens of anti-Israel marches – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
