Boycott campaign urges Jordanian students not to visit Israel

AMMAN — The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) has called on Jordanian students to stop visiting Israel.  

PACBI issued the call in a recent statement which said that six Jordanians studying Israeli affairs and Hebrew had visited Israel in a trip organised by the Centre for Israeli Studies Centre (CIS) in Amman. 

CIS President Abdullah Sawalha confirmed the students’ visit to Israel, but said it had taken place two months ago.

PACBI said the visit was an “act of normalisation”, as defined at the first Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) conference in 2007.

The conference stated that “any programme that gathers Arabs or Palestinians and Israelis while ignoring the basic and historical rights of the Arab Palestinian people is normalisation”.

Asked if he considered the visit to be an act of normalisation, Sawalha said it would depend on how one defines normalisation. In a recent phone call, he declined to answer The Jordan Times’ questions about the visit, or to comment on the PACBI statement.  

Answering such questions requires an extensive explanation about the CSI and its work, he said. “These students are independent and do not follow any institution”, Sawalha added. 

PACBI said such a visit ignores the fact that the problem is not “psychological borders” or “strained relations”, but that Israel is an occupying force and Palestinians are the victims.

Jordan and Israel signed a peace agreement in 1994.

Hani Dmour, secretary general of the Higher Education Ministry, told The Jordan Times that there has never been academic cooperation between Jordanian universities and Israel.

“We have no idea about those students and how they went on this mission,” Dmour said. 

The Palestinian Maan News Agency reported that the students were hosted by Israel’s Regional Cooperation Ministry and the Moshe Dayan Centre.

The students met with Ayoub Kara, the deputy of the regional cooperation minister, and the ministry’s general director, Hashem Hussein, the agency reported. 

According to the report, the CIS works to educate Jordanian society about Israel and to increase communication between Jordanians and Israelis. 

The students toured occupied Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the Jordan Valley and met with Israelis, the report added.