Do we like them?Do we like King Abdullah II of Jordan?
Our score: 5 out of 10. Real humanitarian stands on Gaza sit against a record of tight limits on speech and activists under his rule, and little of his own on LGBTQ+ people.
Abdullah II is the king of Jordan, which makes palace politics his home turf. In 2021 a state security court sentenced his former top aide Bassem Awadallah and a royal family member to 15 years for sedition, after a crisis involving Prince Hamzah, who avoided punishment by pledging allegiance to the king. Both men denied the charges and Awadallah's lawyer called the trial unfair.
Then there's the money. In 2021 the Pandora Papers reported that the king used offshore companies to quietly buy about US$100 million of luxury homes in the US and UK. The reports did not allege criminal wrongdoing, and the Royal Court called them distorted and exaggerated, saying he paid personally and no public money was involved. Even with the denial, secret mansions are the kind of thing that makes a mate raise an eyebrow.
On the harm test, we found no hateful words from him personally about LGBTQ+ people. But Human Rights Watch documented Jordan's intelligence and security services interrogating and threatening LGBT activists, with some shutting up shop or fleeing the country, though its report doesn't name the king. A 2023 cybercrime law covers vague categories like “fake news”, and HRW warned it could be used against content about gender and sexuality.
The wider picture on dissent is rough too. Amnesty says hundreds of people were charged under that law in 2024 over posts, including a journalist given a year in prison, and that thousands were arrested after pro-Palestine protests. In April 2025 the Interior Ministry banned the Muslim Brotherhood, citing an alleged sabotage plot that the group denied. Critics see a squeeze on opposition; officials say it was about security.
The latest news is grim. On 23 October gunmen fired for several minutes during a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church in Karak, and the toll rose to nine dead. No group had claimed it when Al Jazeera reported, and the king ordered security forces to respond firmly and pursue those responsible. It's the response any leader would give, so the proof is in what follows.
The good stuff is on Gaza. In February 2025 he stood next to Trump's push and then posted that Jordan's position against displacing Palestinians had not changed, and said Jordan would take up to 2,000 sick Gaza children right away. At the UN in 2024 he condemned the October 7 attacks, but said the scale of the response in Gaza was beyond any justification, and called for a humanitarian gateway. Where you land on that depends on how you read the war, but the acts match the words.