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Jordanian university student Raghida Fares has had to sleep at her friend’s house twice since pro-Gaza demonstrations started this month near the Israeli embassy in her Amman neighbourhood.
On both occasions, a splinter group of mostly young protesters tried to breach security cordons to the embassy, forcing police to disperse them, at one point using tear gas.
“I was out, and when I tried to get back home the police had blocked the roads,” Ms Fares said.
“Other than that, there have been no incidents. Thousands of people assemble daily in front of our house.”
As the Israel-Gaza war enters its fourth week, Jordan, which is socially intertwined with Palestine, has remained relatively calm.
Stability amid upheavals in the Middle East has been a hallmark of the country since its 1970 civil war.
But the war in Gaza has underlined the difficult position Amman often finds itself in whenever violence flares on the western side of the river Jordan.
Unemployment is officially between 22 per cent and 23 per cent, and the economy has been stagnant for the last 12 years.
The country is dependent on US aid and has a military pact with Washington, which over the past decade have helped the kingdom deal with cross-border threats from Syria and elsewhere.
A large proportion of the Jordan's 10 million inhabitants are of Palestinian origin. They fled their homes amid the creation of Israel in 1948, and during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
Most of the rest of the country's population are descendants of tribes and clans who inhabited what is now Jordan but often had branches and kin around the Levant and on the Arabian Peninsula.
These tribes played a key role in the formation of Jordan as a British protectorate in 1921, and underpin its security forces.
Security instructions have been widely followed since the war in Gaza broke out on October 7.
The authorities have allowed pro-Gaza rallies near the Israeli embassy in Rabieh district and elsewhere, but not near the US embassy or the border with Israel.
The protests, although angry, have remained mostly verbal.
Ms Fares said that during past anti-Israel rallies near her home, she and other members of her household had given onions to protesters to lessen the impact of tear gas.
But not this time.
“The situation is too grave to play games,” she said.
In Amman, one of the more placid capitals in the Middle East, traffic has lessened considerably at night because the police have blocked some roads near sensitive sites. People have also refrained from going out, in solidarity with Gaza.
Parts of the West Bank, where Gaza-linked violence has been rising, can be seen from Amman’s outskirts.
A Western diplomat who observed one of the Rabieh rallies said that although the rich and poor mingled at the site, a large number of the demonstrators were young and unemployed.
“There is always a risk of things going out of control in these situations,” she said
In 1994, King Hussein, father of current King Abdullah II, signed a peace treaty with Israel, five years after relinquishing Jordanian claims to the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
There remains, however, significant solidarity with Gaza across social strata.
Usually long drive-through lines at McDonald's and Starbucks were nearly empty at the weekend.
The two US franchises are being shunned in Jordan because of Washington’s support for the Israeli operation in Gaza, which has claimed more than 8,000 lives in three weeks.
“I saw the empty lines at McDonald's and I was tempted to stop and buy the kids cheeseburgers,” said Lina, an administrative manager at a law firm in Amman.
She added that she had “resisted”.
Lina was out on Friday, however, for a high-school reunion at an upper middle-class restaurant on the airport road.
“I attended because the event was planned for a long time,” she said. “The restaurant was empty and the waiters showered us with attention.”
But not everyone has reduced their social activities because of the war.
One expensive, long-established Lebanese restaurant in the central Zahran area was three quarters full for dinner on the weekend. A nearby Italian restaurant, one of the priciest in Amman, was completely full.
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
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Favourite holiday destination: Turkey - because the government look after animals so well there.
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Favourite book: The Lord of the Rings. I didn’t like the movies but I loved the books.
Favourite colour: Black.
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if you go
The flights
Etihad, Emirates and Singapore Airlines fly direct from the UAE to Singapore from Dh2,265 return including taxes. The flight takes about 7 hours.
The hotel
Rooms at the M Social Singapore cost from SG $179 (Dh488) per night including taxes.
The tour
Makan Makan Walking group tours costs from SG $90 (Dh245) per person for about three hours. Tailor-made tours can be arranged. For details go to www.woknstroll.com.sg
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
