Where is the Official Jordanian-Palestinian Media Amid the Suffering at the Bridge?

The reality confirms that what is happening at the crossing linking Palestine and Jordan (the Bridge) is a suffocating crisis, severe humiliation, and treatment that lacks the most basic standards of human dignity. This calls for urgent and strict intervention from the highest levels, along with tight monitoring to stop the farce of exploitation and the burden on citizens, especially regarding the massive numbers and the readiness of the electronic booking platform and the exploitation of the need to travel through bribery - something that was not common before - and the black market that has started to control travel tickets, and the VIP service, which has become indistinguishable from regular travel service. Thousands of Palestinian citizens continue to suffer, especially when returning to their homeland, as citizens are forced to wait for long hours, if they succeed in crossing, or to turn back and wait for the next day hoping for luck to favor them in crossing, or resorting to bribery, which has become the most effective means to ensure crossing at exhausting amounts, according to the testimonies of citizens and rights activists.

The crossing, or "the Bridge," is a living witness to the Nakba and the Naksa, during the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fleeing the oppression and tyranny of the Israeli occupation. It is the only crossing that connects Palestine to the outside world.

In Jordan, it is called the "King Hussein Bridge," but what the Palestinian citizen faces in terms of suffering and practices is unworthy of the humanity that the late King Hussein embodied, who opened his arms to refugees and displaced persons, sheltering them in his lands and sharing with them means of life despite their scarcity at the time, providing all he could for a decent living.

Palestinians have referred to it as the "Al-Karama Crossing," but what Palestinian citizens experience daily during crossing is far removed from all concepts of dignity and humanity. Even Israeli authorities have named the crossing as "the Allenby Bridge" in honor of the British General Edmund Allenby, who ended the Crusades by occupying Jerusalem in 1917, taking it from the Ottomans, Arabs, and Muslims.

These names carry multiple significances, but all of them internally represent meanings of strict governance and adherence to beliefs even if interpretations may differ. So where do the happenings at this crossing, which has unfortunately become, and I say it with pain, a model - albeit less intense - of the Israeli occupation checkpoints that have severed the West Bank, and where the Palestinian citizen faces various forms of suffering and humiliation, fit into these significances? Where humiliation has become a substitute for the dignity that the citizen should possess, which is not an extravagance, but rather a way to calibrate the path and build trust among brothers, and now discipline has turned into chaos that is outside of all humanitarian laws and regulations being followed at crossings, replacing justice and dignity, and strictness and control have become humiliating cruelty.

Intensive meetings have been held by both the Jordanian and Palestinian sides, with the Israeli side notably absent, which undoubtedly bears the greatest burden in this crisis and holds the key to the main gate of its resolution.

The bilateral meetings resulted in measures described as potentially alleviating the crisis, yet in reality, as it became evident, matters have become more complicated, especially with the large groups of pilgrims, knowing that both sides hold keys to small gates, and had they been well utilized with genuine intentions, breakthroughs could have occurred that, while they would not eliminate the crisis from its roots, could ease its burden considerably and relieve the citizens from much of the physical, psychological, and material burdens.

However, it is noteworthy that the crisis at the bridge has been sidelined from serious official media dialogues, especially on both the Jordanian and Palestinian sides, and the media has not prepared intensive professional reports and investigations regarding the issue, but rather focused only on the meetings and inspections and taking photos of officials from both sides and promises that have not seen real solutions, blaming the Israeli side for the entire responsibility, which is merely a cover for their procrastination in resolving the issue.

In order to push the official levels for urgent intervention, there must be a joint intensive media campaign, Jordanian-Palestinian, led by official media outlets, broadcasted and printed, and involve various social media, shedding light on the reality of what is happening at the bridge, conveying matters professionally, transparently, and objectively while maintaining responsibility and awareness. This would create pressure on official levels and push them toward practical steps to alleviate the suffering, especially as we approach the seasons of spring and summer and the pilgrimage season, where travel and congestion at the bridge are on the rise.

Among the solutions that the joint campaign could focus on, which could facilitate travel for passengers, is to reopen the crossing around the clock or extend working hours at least until midnight. This calls for pressure through all means on the Israeli side regarding this matter, and the development of the electronic platform by linking booking with identity to ensure fairness and limit manipulation, and to impose strict control on the black market and exploitative practices, holding the violating parties accountable publicly.