March 24 members seek to clarify misconceptions

By Thameen Kheetan

AMMAN - Members of the March 24 Youth movement gathered at a public square in Amman on Thursday night to “talk to people” and clarify “misconceptions” that have prevailed about them among many Jordanians.

Dozens of the movement’s members, supporters and Amman residents assembled at the Square de Paris in Jabal Luweibdeh to convey the ideas of the group, which last week adopted the name March 24 Youth Coalition, as a number of youth movements joined in.

The movement was launched on March 24 during a 30-hour sit-in at Amman’s Interior Ministry Circle, which ended in violence when a rival group attacked the demonstrators with stones and security forces dispersed the protesters with batons and water canons.

The coalition’s main demands include constitutional amendments whereby the government is formed from the parliamentary majority, fighting corruption and an end to the influence of security agencies in the country’s public and political life.

The incident was followed by a wave of discriminatory remarks about Jordanians of Palestinian origin on Facebook and other local news websites, with critics of the group saying March 24 activists comprise Islamists who are against the regime and want to make Jordan an “alternative homeland” for the Palestinians.

“Deception, dishonesty and lies have prevailed in the official and semi-official media after the incident,” said Firas Mahadin, a leader of March 24, noting that the idea behind Thursday’s event is “to communicate with the public and tell them who we are and what we think”.

“The main slogan that we agreed on was reforming the regime… this is not a compliment but our position,” Mahadin told The Jordan Times.

He stressed that the group comprises members from different parts of Jordan who aim to “topple the alternative homeland option” by encouraging political reforms in the Kingdom.

“Some think we are dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood. Some of our activists are indeed Islamists, but we have also leftists, nationalists and others,” Mahadin, a leftist filmmaker, told two women, who said they wanted to know more about the March 24 Youth Coalition.

One of them, Manal Milhem, said she was interested in the fact that the group is a “diverse garden of several ideologies… trying to do something for the country”.

“It’s a common factor between us that we want reforms… that we want the intelligence [force] to stop its intervention,” Milhem told The Jordan Times.

While musician Ihab Abu Hammad played the oud as a group of participants sang, others continued their discussions.

“I heard that something was happening here at the square and came to see,” noted Suzan Bakri, a mother of three who lives in the neighbourhood.

“One can feel that these young people have principles that they are sticking to,” she remarked.

22 April 2011