Jordan divided on Hezbollah, but united against Israeli attacks on Lebanon

Amman, Jordan – Over the weekend, an unusual calm filled the square outside al-Husseini Mosque in the bustling downtown area of Jordan’s capital.

The location, sandwiched between a commercial thoroughfare and a busy intersection, has been the site of weekly raucous pro-Palestinian protests since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza.

Ahmed, a 50-year-old bookkeeper who runs a shop located on the route protesters usually traverse, told Al Jazeera that the subdued atmosphere was due to the “shock and despair” caused by Israel’s attacks on Lebanon and the death of Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah.

However, this coming weekend, he said, after Friday prayers, this sentiment will have given way to anger and frustration, resulting in what he expects to be a huge turnout.

The televised speech by Hezbollah’s deputy chief Naim Qassem on Monday, the first appearance by a Hezbollah official since Nasrallah’s death, has also given people in Jordan renewed optimism that the Lebanese group remains a “fighting force” Ahmed said.

Demonstrators participate in a protest supporting Palestinians in Gaza in Amman, Jordan on August 23, 2024 [Jehad Shelbak/Reuters]

United against Israeli aggression

Ahmed recalls the 2006 July War between Israel and Hezbollah when he said the vast majority of Jordanians supported the armed group.

Now, Hezbollah’s support for the Damascus regime in the Syrian civil war has diminished support for it in the country.

Still, there are pockets of vocal support for the group. On Saturday, protesters gathered outside the al-Kalouti Mosque near the Israeli embassy in Amman, hoisting up placards with pictures of Nasrallah and shouting pro-Hezbollah slogans.

Ahmed says that although some people may not actively support Hezbollah, the country is united in its condemnation of Israeli aggression against another Arab country.

Demonstrators gesture as they carry pictures of Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah outside al-Kalouti Mosque near the Israeli embassy in Amman, Jordan on September 28, 2024 [Jehad Shelbak/Reuters]

Hussein Amer, a 26-year-old who works in hospitality, told Al Jazeera that the large protests expected this Friday will not be about Hezbollah but rather “about what Israel continues to do in the Middle East”.

Amer, who is half Jordanian and half Palestinian, says the war on Gaza has deeply affected him.

He used to attend protests regularly until his workload prevented him from doing so.

However, he said the developments in Lebanon signal a “big change” and have re-invigorated the spirit of protest in the capital. He said he would be sure to attend the upcoming protests.

Hussein Amer, left side, front row, with his friends in Amman, Jordan [Nils Adler/Al Jazeera]

Mohammed Telwiy, an 18-year-old student of Palestinian heritage, said that although he does not support Hezbollah as a group, like many people in Jordan, he now stands in tacit solidarity with them as well as the Lebanese people as they face Israeli aggression.

He said there is a palpable sense of anger in the country after Israel’s attacks in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, as it shows that Israel is pursuing a larger regional war against several Arab countries.

He always attends protests against Israel’s war on Gaza when he is not working or studying, but now expects this weekend’s protests to swell in size and intensity.

“There are too many children dead, we need this war to end,” he said.

Mohammed Telwiy in Amman, Jordan [Nils Adler/Al Jazeera]

Omer Yaseen, a 20-year-old optician from al-Wehdat refugee camp, said there is a range of opinions regarding Hezbollah and its leader in the capital, with “everyone believing they are a political analyst”.

Despite this, he said, “everyone without exception” sees that Israel “wants to expand in Syria and Lebanon, and everyone sees the killing of innocent people as a crime, just as it is in Gaza”.

A political tightrope

On Friday, Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi made a flurry of comments at the UN Security Council meeting on Gaza in which he condemned Israel’s attacks on Lebanon.

He told reporters on the sidelines of the event that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must be stopped, otherwise, “war will encompass all of us.”

On Saturday, he posted on X that Amman holds Israel “fully responsible for the catastrophic consequences of its brutal aggression against Lebanon”.

He added that Jordan condemns Israel for its “violation of its sovereignty”, its bombing of Beirut and its “killing of its citizens, and its threat to its security and stability”.

However, the government has since remained tight-lipped on Israel’s ongoing attacks in Lebanon despite the mood on the streets.

This is in line with the political tightrope Jordan has walked since Israel launched its war on Gaza.

The kingdom has pushed for a ceasefire and sent aid to the besieged Palestinian enclave but also maintained diplomatic relations with Israel.

In April, it shot down over its territory missiles fired from Iran towards Israel in retaliation for an earlier Israeli air strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, which killed eight officers of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

This stance has angered a significant portion of Jordan’s citizens, many of whom are descendants of the Palestinians forced out of their lands in both the Nakba and the 1967 war.

On Saturday, the Jordanian Armed Forces issued a statement saying that a rocket launched from southern Lebanon had landed in an uninhabited area in al-Muwaqqar, east of Amman, on Saturday, and no casualties were reported.

The statement said the army’s air defence systems were prepared to respond to any further missiles or drones attempting to breach Jordanian airspace.