Scores of Jordanian trade unionists demonstrated outside the Egyptian embassy in Amman on Sunday, urging Cairo to stop building a steel wall along its border with the Gaza Strip.
Security forces cordoned off the embassy area and prevented demonstrators from reaching the headquarters of the Egyptian diplomatic mission, witnesses said.
A union member who tried to reach the embassy was arrested and released five hours later, officials reported.
Unions want a boycott of religious tourist sites in Jerusalem
These protests come at the same time as unions in Jordan are calling for a boycott of tourism to Jerusalem for religious purposes by Jordanian citizens.
The unions argue Jordanian tourists must de-facto recognise Israel due to the visa stamps they need to get for their passports from the Israeli Embassy in the Jordanian capital, Amman.
Despite a peace treaty signed between Jordan and Israel in 1994 the local trade union movement is at the forefront of continuing opposition to normalising relationships with Israel.
Union protest slogans accuse Egypt of contributing to Gaza seige
Egyptian officials have confirmed the construction of the wall along the border with the Gaza Strip, saying it was a “sovereign decision” designed to prevent smuggling activities through tunnels.
Deutsche Press Agentur reported that union protesters chanted slogans and raised placards accusing Egypt of contributing to the siege of the Gaza Strip by closing the crossings with the Palestinian enclave and blocking a charity convoy, Viva Palestina, from travelling there last week from the Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba.
Pattern of union protests
Sunday’s protest is the second in a little over a week involving Jordanian trade unionists protesting at the Egyptian embassy.
After the earlier protest, on December 27, Agence France Presse reported some 100 members of Jordan’s powerful trade union federation and the Muslim Brotherhood staged a protest Sunday in Amman against Egypt’s decision.
“Muslims and Arabs around the world should press the Egyptian regime to allow the entry of the convoy through Nuweiba,” Hammam Said, the overall leader of the Islamist group, told a rally.
Egypt succunbs to Israeli and US pressure by building steel wall, top lawyer says
The convoy, led by British lawmaker George Galloway and manned by 450 activists from 17 countries, was forced by Egypt to return to the Syrian Mediterranean port of Latakia and to travel from there to the Gaza Strip through the Egyptian port of El Arish.
Former chairman of the Jordan Bar Association Saleh Armouti accused Egypt of “succumbing” to Israeli and US pressures by building a steel wall with the Gaza Strip and closing all crossings with the Palestinian territory.