Citizens voice discontentment over recent damaging of watermelon street stacks

AMMAN — After images were taken of Greater Amman Municipality’s bulldozers demolishing random stalls which sold watermelon in one of the capital’s neighbourhoods on Wednesday, Jordanians took to social media to express their outrage.

Images circulating on social media showed a bulldozer damaging stacks of watermelon on the street grounds which resulted in breaking a part of the sidewalk.

Jordanians criticised “GAM’s unfair dealings” with the watermelon sellers and with the watermelon itself, as the bulldozers trampled it in a way that was “humiliating” which provoked Jordanians’ feelings.

Jordanians demanded that the government should take action against those involved in such acts, as well as dealing in a more humane and effective way with illegal stall owners.

Twitter user Mohamad Emosh expressed his disappointment over the incident, condemning the action taken against the stall owners.

“Stall owners are poor people only looking to provide for their families, this is very unfair,” he tweeted in Arabic.

Fidaa Mahseeri, a Jordanian citizen, pointed out that this incident has happened multiple times before, calling on the government to “establish a specific system to organise the work of stalls instead of dealing with it this way,” she commented in Arabic on a Facebook post of the images.

Doaa Sabri on twitter, tweeted the images of the damaged watermelon, highlighting that it is a seasonal fruit which people love and they prefer to buy it from stalls as it is sold for a cheaper price than it is in fruit and vegetable stores.

“The fruit being seasonal makes the presence of the stall temporary, some young people use this season to make more money under the difficult circumstances and unemployment. This is not the right way to deal with it,” she tweeted in Arabic.

“This is an unacceptable act, this fruit should not go to waste like this, there are people who want it and cannot buy it, it could have been donated to people in need instead of ruining it this way. I hope that the government takes action against the people who did this,” Jordanian twitter user Rami Fouad tweeted in Arabic.

GAM was not available to comment despite attempts by The Jordan Times.