Last week, Jordanian authorities arrested Hamza Khader, the coordinator of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in Jordan, and took him to an undisclosed location for investigation. According to BDS, Khader was arrested on Tuesday, May 6, over social media posts.
BDS Jordan issued a statement on Wednesday, May 7, denouncing the arrest of Khader, saying that “it constitutes a clear violation of the fundamental rights of Jordanians to freedom of opinion, freedom of speech and peaceful assembly, which are guaranteed by the Jordanian constitution and the international conventions.”
The movement criticized the Jordanian authorities’ use of broadly-worded provisions of the Cybercrime Laws to crackdown on individuals, who express their solidarity with the Palestinian cause, which “represents the conscience of the vast majority of Jordanian nationals.”
BDS Jordan asserted that supporting the Palestinian people, rejecting normalization with Israel, and expressing the national stance towards regional issues “do not threaten national security or public order.”
The movement emphasized that, on the contrary, such actions represent “civilized practices that reflect well-established political awareness, which should be safeguarded and respected, not criminalized and repressed.”
BDS also demanded the authorities in Jordan to “immediately release Hamza Khader and all prisoners of conscience and drop all charges against them.”
Jordanian authorities’ escalated crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists
The arrest of Hamza Khader is seen as part of the Jordanian authorities’ unprecedented crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists, journalists and demonstrators, which dramatically increased since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal aggression on Gaza in October, 2023.
Amnesty International said in its 2024 report on Jordan, that the authorities in the country detained and prosecuted “thousands of individuals for criticizing the authorities, expressing pro-Palestine sentiments or participating in peaceful protests.”
Moreover, the Jordanian government was slammed by rights groups for enacting its “controversial” Cybercrime Law in August 2023, which came into effect in September 2023.
In a joint statement, 14 rights groups labelled the law as “draconian” because of its “vague provisions” that “open the door for Jordan’s executive branch to punish individuals for exercising their right to freedom of expression, forcing the judges to convict citizens in most cases”.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International accused the Jordanian authorities of “weaponizing the Cybercrimes Law to target and harass” whoever expresses “opinions online that are critical of government policies and practices.”
