Jordanian former Minister of Tourism: The Israelis removed me from government
Amman (QNN)- The Jordanian former minister of tourism Maha Khatib revealed that complaints by Israeli officials, including the Israeli ambassador in Amman, removed her from the cabinet.
Khatib said that during her ministerial tenure, she tried very hard to put an end to the Israeli insolence, trying to prevent them from breaking into archaeological sites in Jordan, where they used to perform rituals. An act which caused Israeli travel agencies to start a strike and the Israeli ambassador to register a complaint against her.
“After that I ordered to impose entrance fees on them when they visit Petra, as they were used not to pay a single dime and to leave their rubbish behind”, Khatib said.
“We imposed the fees, so they continued to complain. At the end, the fight ended with me being removed from the cabinet in the first cabinet reshuffle”.
Khatib’s statement comes few days after photos and videos of Israeli tourists breaking into archaeological sites in Petra and performing rituals have swept social media and triggered outrage among Jordanians.
Khatib said that many Israelis were caught burying artifact in different areas in Jordan to claim their right of the country.
“The Prophet Haroun site is not religious but rather an archaeological site. We’ve found many Israelis trying to bury artifacts with writings in Hebrew on them in different areas of Jordan like Karak, Petra, and Tabqet Fahel”, she said.
“We have caught them in the act. the Zionist colonial ideology has no limits. They want to convince the world that any place, through which they passed in the past, even if it was for a couple of nights, is their own. Meanwhile, we are denied our right to tell our ancient history which goes back to thousands of years. Zionism is idiologized with religion. For them, religion is just a pretext for expansion”.
