Al-Jazeera website reports on Jordan rally celebrating release of four prisoners

Text of report by Qatari government-funded aljazeera.net website on 21 August

[Report by Muhammad al-Najjar, datelined Amman: "A Celebration for the Jordanian Prisoners Turns Into a Forum to Praise the Resistance."]

Amman -A rally celebrating the freedom of four Jordanian prisoners held on the evening of Wednesday 20 August 2008 turned into an occasion to affirm the course of resistance as the only way to regain rights, and into a forum for rejecting the course of negotiations and peaceful solutions with Israel.

Jordanian professional unions and opposition parties and the National Committee for Prisoners and Missing Persons in Israel had called for the rally which was held amid a vast mass audience. The rally celebrated the freed prisoners: Sultan al-Ajluni, Salim Abu-Ghulyun, Khalid Abu-Ghulyun, and Amin al-Sani, after 18 years of captivity in Israel.

Another Crossing

The dean of Jordanian prisoners, Sultan al-Ajluni, aroused the enthusiasm of the big crowd when he swore that he would cross the Jordan River once again, but not alone as was the case in the past -in a reference to the operation he carried out in 1990 on the Jordanian border with Palestine when he killed one Israeli soldier and wounded another -but in the company of the entire "nation [ummah]," as he said.

Al-Ajluni strongly criticized the course of negotiations, and saluted the resistance factions in Lebanon and Palestine that opted for resistance as a way to free the prisoners in enemy jails.

The professional unions' compound in the centre of Amman was the scene of a notable climate of celebrations marking the freedom of the four prisoners, during which there was a fireworks display and speeches were given, while the crowd interacted with songs presented by the Al-Yarmuk Group.

In the forefront of those attending the rally were political and party leaders, MPs, and the families of prisoners and missing persons in Israel.

The Sleep of the Keepers

The dissident Layth Shubaylat said that the freed prisoners deserved this celebration by their struggle "because the nation's keepers have ignored the invading foxes which would not have won if the nation's keepers had not slept."

Shubaylat strongly criticized the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty that was signed in 1994, describing it as "humiliating", adding that the treaty "abandoned the prisoners."

The secretary general of the Islamic Action Front, Zaki Bani-Irshayd, said he did not find a single stand for which the Jordanian Government deserves to be thanked in connection with the case of the prisoners, those who have been freed, and those who are still missing.

However, Bani-Irshayd said "he will be thankful and thankful to the government if it were to free the Jordanian soldier Ahmad al-Daqasimah tomorrow."

Al-Daqasimah is a Jordanian soldier who killed eight Jewish female students at a Jordanian-Israeli crossing point in 1996. He was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Jordanian military court. Al-Daqasimah had said during his trial that he opened fire at the students after they had made fun of him while he was praying.

Fadwa al-Barghuti -the wife of the imprisoned Palestinian struggler Marwan al-Barghuti - who attended the rally, welcomed the release of the four prisoners and said that Israeli shackles will not continue for long to detain the heroic prisoners.

A Nation's Cause

In a statement to Al-Jazeera Net Fadwa al-Barghuti added: "Today we celebrate the freeing of the prisoners in Jordan, and recently we celebrated in Lebanon [the release of prisoners], and in a few days we will celebrate the freeing of Sa'id al-Utbah after 32 years of captivity in Israeli jails, as well as Abu-Ali Yatta and others."

Al-Barghuti said the prisoners' cause "is not the cause of the Palestinians alone, for it is the cause of the nation and is a pan-Arab, Muslim, and moral cause."

She called on all the good people of the nation to help the Palestinians to heal their internal rift. She described the Palestinian division as "a black page in the history of the struggle of the Palestinian people," adding that "we cannot face the occupiers unless we are united."

Al-Ajluni had responded to all those who try to separate the destiny of Jordan from that of Palestine. He said: "Jordan and Palestine are like the two eyes in the same head. They are like one's two parents, and are like the Muslim's two testimonies [that there is no god but God, and that Muhammad is His prophet]."

He described the stage of imprisonment as "a respite", and said: "The time of respite has gone and the time of hard work has begun."

Al-Ajluni wore the shirt of the Jordanian who has been missing since 1990, Muhammad Atiyah Furayj. He said such an act represents a pledge on his part to work with all those concerned in order to uncover the fate of Jordanians missing in Israel.

Al-Ajluni said both the great public empathy with the cause of the four prisoners and the big crowd attending the rally represent a popular referendum on holding on to the course of resistance which he described as "the people's choice", while he rejected the course of negotiations which he said is "the rulers' choice."

Popular celebrations marking the release of the four prisoners will continue on Thursday, 21 August, in the city of Al-Mafraq, 65 km east of Amman, and celebrations will also be held in several Jordanian cities in the coming days.

During the celebration, 53 balloons carrying messages of love to 25 Jordanian prisoners and 28 missing Jordanians in Israel were released into the sky.

Source: Aljazeera.net website, Doha, in Arabic 21 Aug 08