No queen for the tribes

    These are not the easiest of days for Jordan‘s King Abdullah II. The “Arab Spring” has reached Amman and is putting his throne under pressure from two sides. Every Friday, which has been dubbed the national “day of rage,” thousands of leftists and Islamists of mainly Palestinian descent take to the streets to demand political reform. On the other side of the spectrum, the Jordanian tribes have grown ever more vocal in their demands to curb the growing Palestinian influence in the country. The focal point of their criticism has been none other than Queen Rania, herself of Palestinian descent. In February, 36 tribal representatives sent an open letter to the king in which they accused his wife of “building power centers for her interests that go against what Jordanians and Hashemites have agreed on in governing, and [she] is a danger to the nation, the structure of