By : Ahmad Awad
Jordan Daily – In light of accelerating regional developments—such as the continuing war of genocide and ethnic cleansing in Palestine, and the start of direct Israeli aggression against Iran—the viability of seriously discussing development and economy in this region is again in question. After all, the region is still dominated by the settler colonial project of “Israel,” which was consolidated and continues to be propped up in support by the major Western powers.
Since its inception, “Israel” has been nothing more than an advanced colonial outpost, built on the uprooting the Palestinian people from their land, underpinned by religious biblical narrative and myth. The ramifications of this project were not limited to Palestine; they reshaped our regional landscape. “Israel” has imposed a tenuous status quo, necessarily suppressing the emergence of any comparable political, economic, or military entity.
Western efforts to protect “Israel”’s dominance has never been limited to military or political aid. Just as critically, Critically, they involve engineering the region’s geopolitical landscape to maintain its fragility, preventing its nations from building power or asserting sovereignty.
At the center of this turbulent region, Jordan is no exception to this grim equation. Its successive development and economic plans continue to falter—thwarted not only by its own domestic choices, but by a regional reality imposed upon it. This reality is spearheaded by the Israeli colonial entity, which persistently exports crises to its neighbors: from restricting access to natural resources, especially water; to fueling ongoing geopolitical instability that deters investment and tourism; to draining national budgets, as military expenditures divert funding away from education, health, and infrastructure.
Yet major Western countries, such as the United States and several leading EU nations, maintain a glaringly hypocritical stance. While voicing support for justice, development, and respect for international law, they simultaneously shield and arm the Zionist entity. That same entity has violated international law and its core principles every day since its founding over seventy years ago, committing genocide and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people.
These countries must look in the mirror and confront the true reflection cast by their regional policies: one that has systematically denied sovereignty, development, and justice to the peoples of the region; one that publicly extols human dignity while enforcing exclusion, supremacy, and colonialism in practice.
In light of this reality, discussions of ‘economy’ and ‘development’ increasingly ring hollow. The region’s political order is still governed by a colonial logic, one that disregards the interests of its peoples and their economic priorities. How can economies meaningfully grow when regional power dynamics are engineered to uphold the supremacy of one state, while denying others any chance at equality or fair partnership?
As this system tightens its grip, stability becomes endlessly postponed and sustainable development little more than a theoretical discourse, completely disconnected from the lived realities of the region’s people. When hegemony is the openly declared goal, and the region is managed as an environment for sustaining a settler-colonial project, any talk of an independent economic future or a safe, attractive environment for investment is pure illusion.
True development cannot be built on the ruins of colonialism, military superiority, and arrogance. Nor can it be managed or realized amid such profound moral imbalance and double standards in the international system. Both justice and economic development are out of reach.
Ahmad Awad is the founder and director of the Phenix Center for Economic Studies, specializes in human rights and socio-economic issues. He is also advocate for human rights and promoting democracy and civil society at local, Arab, and international levels.