Amman protests conference depicting Jordan as Palestinian homeland

Mon, 06 Dec 2010

Amman - The Jordanian government on Monday protested to the Israeli government a conference organized by an extremist Knesset member promoting Jordan as an "alternative homeland" for Palestinians.

The conference, entitled Jordan is Palestine, opened Monday in Israel. It is sponsored by Israeli lawmaker Arieh Eldad and attended by the controversial Dutch legislator Geert Wilders, founder and leader of the anti-Islam Party for Freedom.

"Jordan condemns this pointless conference that rejects the two- state solution and seeks to promote Jordan as an alternative homeland for Palestinians," Deputy Prime Minister and official spokesman Ayman Safadi said in a statement.

He said that the Jordanian Foreign Ministry had sent a memorandum of protest to the Israeli government over the conference, which he said "will harm efforts under way to achieve peace in the region."

"Jordan urges the Israeli government to issue a statement denouncing the conference's slogan, which runs counter to Israel's official attitude," Safadi said.

He pointed out that the Dutch ambassador in Amman met him earlier Monday to tell him that Wilders' remarks "run counter to the official attitude of Holland's government, which supports the two-state solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that envisages the setting up of a Palestinian state that lives in peace with Israel."

Wilders told the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronoth on Sunday that be believed Jordan "is the real Palestinian state."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/356885,depicting-jordan-palestinian-homeland.html.