Jordan Police: 25 Hurt in Nakba Clashes

Jordan's public security department said on Monday that 25 people, including 11 policemen, were injured in clashes when authorities barred demonstrators from marching on the border with the occupied territories.

Police on Sunday barred more than 500 people from marching on the border with the occupied territories to mark the 1948 creation of the Zionist entity - an event known in Arabic as the "nakba". The demonstrators, including 200 students, were intercepted a few kilometers (miles) from the King Hussein crossing, or Allenby Bridge, on the Jordan River that defines the frontier with the occupied territories, less than an hour's drive from Amman.

"Some demonstrators provoked police with their chants, while others tried to break the security cordon to cross the border, throwing stones and water bottles at police," a department statement said. "The police had to use tear gas and the suitable force to disperse them," it said, adding that 11 people were arrested for attempting to cross Allenby Bridge.

OPPOSITION CONDEMNS
Jordan's opposition condemned the crackdown. "The attack by police on peaceful protesters who were stressing the commitment of Jordanians to the Palestinian right of return was shocking," the powerful Islamic Action Front said in a statement. "We condemn the attack, which is part of government policies to impose its will on the people, and we demand an end to such policies that have harmed Jordan's image," said the IAF, the political arm of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood.

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