As thousands took to Kuwait's streets yesterday in its biggest pro-palestinian rally since the Gulf War, in Jordan police clashed with protesters and King Abdullah said he would tolerate no disunity in his country.
Police in Jordan clashed with thousands of Palestinians, who form the majority of the country's population and are becoming harder to placate.
They fired teargas at thousands of protesting Palestinian refugees in the second day of clashes at Beqaa, a camp on the outskirts of Amman.
King Abdullah told Jordanians in a televised address he would deal with any potential threats to the country's stability arising from such protests.
"The Jordanians, people and institutions, are angry at what is happening in Palestinian land. But the stability and national unity of Jordan is a red line," the monarch said in a televised speech.
The protesters expressed discontent with the king's refusal to sever ties with Israel and his preventing of exiled Palestinians from mounting cross-border attacks on Israeli targets.
"If Israel has any desire of co-operation with Jordan, then they should listen and withdraw immediately," King Abdullah said.
The clashes began after Palestinian refugees tried to storm a police station during a funeral march. Some 15,000 people followed the funeral of a teenage killed during protests on Sunday.
Hamza Nashabi's parents said he was killed by a teargas canister that had been fired at his head. Jordanian authorities said he died after falling from a roof while playing.
"Arab rulers, step aside. Make room for the fighters. We prefer death to shame," the mourners at Nashabi's funeral chanted.
Small children and teachers scrambled for safety amid the smoke and noise after teargas canisters landed inside two girls' schools where some protesters had taken refuge.
Protesters marching to parliament at Kuwait's rally, whom witnesses said numbered well over 10,000, called on Arab leaders to support the Palestinians.
"No to normalisation (with Israel), No to surrender," the protesters shouted. Some waved pictures of the leaders of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and Lebanon's Hizbullah, and late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel-Nasser.
But the mile-long rally did not chant anti-US slogans, a popular component of rallies sweeping across the Arab world, to protest against Israel's military campaign over the last week in Palestinian territories.
Parliament Speaker Jassem al-Kharafi told the crowd that Arabs "must unite to raise the slogan of 'No God but Allah'... In the name of the Kuwaiti people, we condemn the brutal massacres performed by the Israeli enemy...
"Practical steps are needed to support the Palestinian people and we call on the UN and world parliaments to act immediately to pressure Israel," he said. - (AFP)