Jordan’s King Abdullah says Israel has been trying to ‘distrupt’ its nuclear plans. Does placing Israel in the same camp as the anti-nuclear movement in Jordan have negative implications for the success and popularity of the campaign?
Since 2009, when Jordan first announced its nuclear ambitions, the country has been through a parliamentary review of nuclear power, accusations of slander by the head of the Jordanian Atomic Energy Commission and dozens of protests stating that the costs – both financial and environmental – of nuclear power has not been sufficiently assessed. There is now a new plot twist in the Jordanian nuclear ambition saga. King Abdullah has accused Israel of disrupting Jordan’s nuclear programme. Speaking to Ynet News, he remarked: “When we started going down the road of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, we approached some highly responsible countries to work with us. And pretty soon we realized that Israel was putting pressure on those countries to disrupt any cooperation with us.”
This statement is in my view hugely damaging to Jordan’s anti-nuclear movement. Firstly because support for nuclear power will no doubt be given a boost in retaliation to the news that Israel has been interfering. Secondly, because those trying to stop nuclear could now be seen as siding with a national enemy.
It’s a really tricky situation and one which the environmental movement is trying to downplay. I emailed a campaigner at Greenpeace Jordan, which has been actively campaigning against the nuclear plans for two years now, who said that this news won’t have any impact. “I think that the people who are concerned about the health and environmental consequences of the plant won’t stop the Anti-Nuclear campaign… We have the green alternative and even Japan announced that they will phase out the nuclear plant that they have.” They added, “I won’t lose hope.In 2009, it was announced that the country would begin construction of a nuclear plant in 2011 but one year later and there is nothing. Nuclear plants are notoriously difficult to plan but the delay could be one reason that King Abdullah II has chosen to highlight Israeli opposition to his nuclear ambitions now. At a time when support for nuclear is low, equating anti-nuclear sentiment with Israel does seem one cynical way to garner support for nuclear power.Back in June 2012, the nuclear programme was declared ‘hazardous and costly’ by a Jordanian parliamentary committee. A petition signed by hundreds of representatives of professional organisations, political parties and parliamentarians was also handed into the South Korean embassy in Amman asking them to halt work. A South Korean business consortium is tasked with building the nuclear reactor.
:: Originally published at GreenProphet.com on 17 Sept 2012.
I speak to historian Relli Shechter about smoking in Egypt, consumerism and why the Middle East still has a long way to go before it embraces sustainability
Why does consumerism interest you and why did you decide to the explore the topic in the Middle East- a region not traditionally associated with consumerism (although the Gulf nations are giving the world a run for its money!)?
I speak to Mario Cucinella the architect behind Gaza’s eco schools about building under conflict, water, education and bringing hope to a desperate region
I write about the never-ending battle I have with myself when I’m writing on environmental issues in the Middle East about whether politics should be at the centre of my reporting or not…
A recent GreenProphet blog which looks at the problem with green projects that are planned for the illegal Israeli settlements. 
Fred Halliday, who died aged 64 in April 2010, wrote widely on many subjects related to the Middle East as well as the Muslim community in the UK, but Shocked and Awed is quite different to his other books. In fact, it’s not really a book but a political dictionary of words, turns of phrases and made up terminology which the general public were exposed to in the aftermath of 9/11 and the subsequent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Arranged into twelve chapters, the book studies words that have entered our vocabulary, their meaning, their origins but also- and this is the important bit- they way they influence the way we think and subsequently act. As Halliday reminds us “those who seek to control events, people and their minds also seek to control language.”
Since announcing plans to build Palestine’s first planned and green city back in 2008, the Rawabi project has faced its fair share of criticism. From political complications over using Jewish National Fund trees, concerns by environmentalists over the lack of water and waste-water management plans to threats by Israel to shut down access roads and boycotts- the project really has seen it all.
There is this strange place where the green environmental movement and the Israel-Palestine conflict meet which I find simultaneously inspiring and problematic.
My latest Green Prophet Blogs