Jordan: state’s ‘neutrality’ unravelling – fight for a revolution!

Despite the Jordanian government’s words of condemnation against Israel’s attacks on Iran, in practice they have defended the Zionist state by intercepting Iranian missiles. Israel has saved the Jordanian regime further embarrassment by avoiding using its airspace, but the American and British imperialists have been allowed to use it to support Israel in whatever way they see fit.

As Jordan intercepts Iranian missiles going to Israel, hundreds of pieces of shrapnel and drones have fallen on the heads of Jordanian people, damaging their houses and injuring at least 5 people, including 2 children. Already, 30 military drones have been intercepted by the military. The question going through every Jordanian’s mind is, “Why the hell is our state doing this?”

Where Iranian missiles have penetrated Israeli defences, the Jordanian people have been celebrating, as they see Iran as finally standing up to the real bully in the Middle East, the one that has been creating hell on earth for their Palestinian brothers and sisters.

Meanwhile, the empty words of their own government, and its supposed ‘neutrality’, have been exposed. The Jordanian regime is complicit in this genocide.

Over the last two years, and especially now with the recent escalation, the Jordanian state has increasingly shown its true colours as it has been pulled more clearly into the conflict on the side of the Israeli state and the western imperialists. It is only a matter of time before the masses in Jordan are pushed towards the only way in which they can offer real solidarity to Palestine: a revolution.

The anger of the masses has been the defining feature of public life in the last 18 months since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza. Whereas the regime had tried to leave some channels open for the masses to let off steam, the months preceding the latest escalation have seen it forced to rest on outright police repression: banning parties, closing media outlets and mulling banning all pro-Palestine protests. The latest events threaten to bring everything to boiling point.

The growing anger since 7 October

From the start, the Jordanian masses have sought to come to the aid of their Palestinian brothers and sisters. In December 2023, small shopkeepers heeded the Palestinian trade unions' call for a strike, resulting in whole streets being shuttered in Amman, Irbid and other cities. Mass demonstrations were called immediately following the start of the war and have become a weekly occurrence with ebbs and flows to this day.

Many slogans that were raised early on placed demands on the regime itself: in particular, for the ending of the peace treaty that was signed shortly after the Oslo Accords in 1994, and the many economic deals that the regime has done with Israel in the three decades since. However, the demonstrations generally aimed at showing support for Palestinian resistance and against western imperialists. The mood sharpened considerably during the month of Ramadan last year, when protests became a daily event, with many protestors spending the whole night on the street before going about their fast with the sunrise.

Every night, there were attempts to march toward the Israeli embassy in Amman, which was protected by a heavy police presence.

From the start, the Jordanian masses have sought to come to the aid of their Palestinian brothers and sisters / Image: Raya Sharbain, Wikimedia Commons

The heavy-handed policing and arrests that the demonstrations were met with only spurred them on further, which led, in turn, to more police brutality. For the first time, slogans against the state and the police started to become widespread. Protesters chanted, “No Zionist embassy on Jordanian land”, and approached the police, asking them “You’re being paid to protect this embassy, [how can you accept?]”. Added to that were chants against the religious leaders in the pocket of the state, who appealed to religious feeling to stop the demonstrations.

The Jordanian government and its monarchy have had to walk a tightrope.

They have been forced to act as if they care about the plight of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. From the start, the Jordanian government has not been shy with its words of condemnation against the Israeli attacks on Gaza. It has called on the international community to hold Israel accountable and to impose a weapons embargo against it.

They have had to allow the protests to proceed, within limits, including protests at the Israeli embassy and attempts to march toward the border. In fact, Jordan has seen the biggest peaceful pro-Palestine protests in the region. They have tried to pair a certain tolerance for the Jordanian masses letting off steam with empty threats to Israel and lip-service to Palestinian resistance.

But the immense anger of the Jordanian masses, who wish for nothing more than to come to the aid of Palestine, and the behaviour of the Netanyahu regime, have made it impossible to keep up this tightrope act.

Individuals who have tried to strike out at Israel have been received with enormous popular support. Last September, Maher al-Jazi, a truck driver delivering goods to the West Bank, shot dead three Israeli border guards before being shot dead himself. Protests erupted in Amman demanding Israel return his body. After the return of his body, thousands attended his funeral. Another two attacks followed, one aimed at Israeli soldiers at the border and another at policemen protecting the Israeli embassy.

The Jordanian state, which hasn’t lifted a finger in aid of the Palestinians, has since tightened up security in order to prevent similar acts. In April 2025, the Jordanian government announced the dismantling of cells accused of manufacturing missiles and drones with the aim of “sowing chaos and sabotage within the kingdom,” and the arrest of 16 individuals in connection with these operations.

In fact, Jordanian Intelligence has been aware of this operation and has had the individuals involved under surveillance since 2021. But the state thought this was the most opportune moment to make the arrest and publicise their activities. The operation has been used as an excuse to clamp down on the Muslim Brotherhood, the political arm of which has played a leading role in the opposition and the street protests.

The state has gone as far as to threaten anyone who supports the organisation or who “promotes its views” with arrest under terrorism charges and even the revocation of their citizenship. The views they ascribe to the Muslim Brotherhood are purposefully unclear, and can be used to incriminate ordinary angry youth.

The Muslim Brotherhood immediately distanced itself from the cell and its organisers, signalling to the Jordanian working class that they are still working within the same system as the state, and are not willing to go as far as the people want to go.

Irrespective of the organisation they were affiliated to, if any, the point is that these young men were clearly sick of the inaction of the government and wanted to resist.

There is growing discontent with the Jordanian state, which metes out repression against the pro-Palestinian masses while being directly complicit in the genocide ongoing in Gaza. Although pro-Palestine protests have remained legal, thousands have so far been arrested for pro-Palestine activism.

This complicity was completely exposed during the first exchange of missiles between Israel and Iran in October 2024, when the Jordanian regime downed Iranian missiles fired over its airspace. The resumption of Israel’s genocidal campaign after the brief ceasefire earlier this year, with the clear intention of ethnically cleansing Gaza, raised the temperature to boiling point.

These events caused a further escalation in the pro-Palestine demonstrations, which began to take off again after the failure of the ceasefire. Now the chants are directly attacking the Jordanian army, to the horror of the state, and are calling for mobilisation against Israel in support of Palestine. “Where is the Arab army? It's sleeping,” went one of the chants.

This is exactly what the Jordanian state has been trying to shut down. They have tolerated pro-Palestine protests up until now as long as they didn’t overflow their banks. But as the masses increasingly target the regime – as it becomes clear that only after a revolution in Jordan and the other reactionary Arab states can aid be brought to the Palestinians – even this limited outlet is becoming intolerable.

Ministers are now talking about “putting the lid” on the Gaza protests. Rumours say they are preparing for a full ban. The regime has already run out of road. Now, it is being sucked once more into the war – shooting down Iranian missiles in defence of Israel – as the imperialists directly confront Iran.

Even its nominal support for the Palestinians has been exposed as laced with self-interest. For instance, a Middle East Eye report revealed that the Jordanian state received $400,000 for every aid air drop in Gaza which they conducted in February 2024. As they laid bare its corruption, the regime has responded by banning media outlets.

This is not a stable regime. At the start of this year, it shook its fist and threatened Israel with war if they were to ethnically cleanse Gaza and force refugees into Jordan, even though they know it would be an impossible war to win. But now, its pro-Palestine demagoguery is exhausted and it has nothing left to rest on but police repression. This is a sign of weakness. Jordan is like a pressure cooker. The regime is closing off the safety valves. Sooner rather than later, the whole thing is likely to blow.

Subordination to imperialism

The existence and survival of the Jordanian state and the Hashemite monarchy are and have always been predicated on and completely tied to imperialist meddling in the Middle East.

The existence and survival of the Jordanian state and the Hashemite monarchy are and have always been predicated on and completely tied to imperialist meddling / Image: public domain

The people in power were moulded and carefully selected and maintained to uphold British and, subsequently, American interests in the region. This has meant ensuring Israel remains a viable entity, and, above all, holding back the Arab masses from revolutionary struggle. The stability of Jordan, as a collaborator in this game, is of utmost importance to the imperialists. As a US State Department spokesperson put it, Jordan is “a strong US partner with a critical role for regional security.”

It is not surprising, then, that Jordan is the 4th largest recipient of US aid globally (only behind Ukraine, Israel and Ethiopia), which translates to around $1.4 billion annually. This aid doesn’t stop at military support, but also extends to direct budget support and water access. Indeed, Jordan is the second most water-scarce country in the world, and so its ability to provide clean water to its citizens has a big influence on its stability. Hence, another $6 billion has been funnelled to the kingdom for a flagship water desali­na­tion project to ensure the Kingdom’s self-sufficiency.

The key role of Jordan as a pawn of western imperialism was exposed in more ways than one when the Jordanian state first intercepted Iranian rockets fired in retaliation against Israeli aggression last October.

An attack in retaliation by Iranian-backed militias at the Tower 22 military outpost near the Jordanian-Syrian border killed three US soldiers and injured dozens more. Prior to the attack, however, the very existence of the base was kept a secret from the Jordanian people, and indeed its existence was even initially denied by King Abdullah! The truth is, some 3,000 American troops are typically stationed across Jordan, a fact that he knows would infuriate the Jordanian people, whose hatred of US imperialism is only matched by their hatred of Israeli imperialism.

Between them, the imperialists and the regime have brought a nightmare to the Jordanian masses. The Jordanian economy has been declining since the 2008 crisis. In 2024, Jordan’s debt-to-GDP ratio was 116 percent. Around 17 percent of government spending is going on interest alone. Youth unemployment has reached 46 percent, meaning that almost half of people under 24 can't find jobs. In fact, 21 percent of the national income in 2023 in Jordan came from expatriates sending money to their families – that's just over a billion dollars every year. Inequality is sharper than ever.

To make matters worse, the economy has also been severely impacted by the war on Gaza. The tourism industry, which contributes up to 15 percent of the national income, was hit the hardest. Air travel to the country is down by half and 95 percent of visits to Petra cancelled.

Last year, half of hotel bookings were cancelled, meaning the sector has only reached 10-15 percent of capacity. The escalation in the Red Sea has also impacted trade through Jordan’s Aqaba port, which it uses for half of its exports and a third of its imports.

All this is being exacerbated on account of the Iran-Israel conflict, as Israel immediately shut down the gas lines supplying Jordan. For a country where 90 percent of energy is imported, this is bound to impact fuel and electricity prices, putting more pressure on the Jordanian workers.

Any escalation in the region will only drag the world – and particularly the Jordanian – economy deeper into a crisis that will hit the poorest the hardest. This is before taking into account the physical danger that the regime is placing the masses in by directly involving itself in the war by coming to the defence of Israel, which has already led to injuries from shrapnel.

A deep anger is simmering just beneath the surface among the Jordanian working class and youth. Anger at the Zionist genocide and oppression, at the sharp inequality they are facing, and at their own ruling class, which has proved that it is the worst enemy of the Jordanian and Palestinian people, are mingling together. The balancing act of King Abdullah II and his government has become impossible with the latest escalation. They will inevitably be dragged in on the side of Israel and the imperialists. It is only a matter of time before the anger of the Jordanian working class finally boils over.

The only way for the working and poor people of Jordan to act on their support for Palestine and their hatred towards the imperialists in the region would be to take matters into their own hands. They cannot rely on the US puppets that make up their own ruling class.

Jordanian workers, we must organise to overthrow this regime and the system it represents! We must inspire and work with the rest of the working class of the region to overthrow their own ruling classes. Only then can a Socialist Federation of the Middle East be established and act as a real force for the liberation of Palestine.