Counterproductive demonstrations

Demonstrators who take to the streets on Fridays, like they did in front of Al Husseini Mosque, downtown Amman this weekend, to protest against US Secretary of State John Kerry’s much talked-about peace plan must know what most of us do not: the exact content of Kerry’s framework for discussion between Palestinians and Israelis.

Other than that, it is difficult to figure out the outcry or understand why some insist on opposing its still unknown provisions.

Most of us in the region await with bated breath the disclosure of the said document. Not that we expect miracles, particularly since “leaked” information from different corners — not to be guided by, one might haste to add — is not encouraging.

Still, and giving the benefit of the doubt to the distinguished US official, one hopes that his shuttle diplomacy will not have been in vain and that some sort of agreement will be arrived at by the two conflicting parties based on Kerry’s document.

Some among us, however, have decided that they know better and will shape the course of events by… well, taking to the streets to protest the unknown.

True, the secrecy surrounding the framework does not help. It has given way to quite a bit of controversy, doubts, theories and anger. 

But the mere fact that the secretary of state shuttles back and forth, going to lengths to push the parties to sit together and discuss peace suggests that there is something to the document that should be given a chance to work.

Chanting slogans and levelling accusations at all quarters is not going to help the situation. If anything, it only inflames spirits of some who, short of better things to do, want to take the framework apart and outright reject it.

The fact that Jordan remains privy to all developments regarding the peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis should be enough assurance that Jordan and Jordanians have nothing to fear from Kerry’s ideas.

And if they get translated into positive developments, all the better.

But for them to reach there, they have to be given a chance, one that Friday demonstrators are adamant against granting.