With all the sadness befitting the magnitude of the loss, and with all the reverence matching the stature of great men, Jordan bids farewell, and the Arab nation bids farewell to a distinguished national and Arab figure … His Excellency Professor Ahmed Obeidat, may God have mercy on him, and grant him Paradise.
Today, Hurtha, his birthplace, draped in black, as did Irbid, and sadness spread across the cities and villages of the kingdom. His passing was not just a fleeting news story, but a quake in the national consciousness, because the deceased was not just an official who held high positions, but a living conscience, an example of a man who lived clean… and died clean, inside and out.
Ahmed Obeidat represented a rare model in Jordanian public life: a statesman who was not seduced by power, whose voice could not be silenced, and whose positions did not change his compass. He held the highest offices, from managing the General Intelligence Directorate during the nation's most critical phases, to the Prime Ministry, then the Senate, and later his presidency of the National Center for Human Rights, yet he remained steadfast in one conviction: that the nation is above all, and dignity and freedom are not a grant but a right.
He was, may God have mercy on him, fierce in his criticism when he saw faults, clear in his stance when confusion intensified, brave in saying “no” when many chose silence. He was not an opponent just for the sake of opposition, but an advisor from a place of love, differing from a position of care, and protesting in the name of the Constitution and justice and human dignity. Therefore, he enjoyed rare consensus and deep respect in the Jordanian street, even from his political opponents.
In a time where narrow calculations are plentiful, Ahmed Obeidat remained a resolute Arab nationalist, seeing in Palestine a moral compass, and in the unity of the Arab stance a necessary existence, not a slogan for exploitation. He paid the price for his positions, and was excluded more than once from official positions, but he did not compromise, nor change, nor regret. He believed that the great are not diminished by death, but rather their pure bodies are hidden; they remain a living example in the conscience and consciousness of the nation.
The grief of Jordan at his departure is not the grief of a person, but the grief of a pure approach, and a school in genuine nationalism. However, Jordan and the Arab nation, is a fertile nation, where values do not die with their carriers, but are renewed, inspired by the life of people like Ahmed Obeidat, the meaning of steadfastness, the meaning of honor, and the meaning of being a statesman not a man of power.
May God have mercy on you, O Father of Integrity, who lived great and passed away great.
We ask God to envelop you in His vast mercy, and to reward you generously for your service to your nation and your people, and to admit you into the highest paradise with the trustworthy, the martyrs, and the righteous.
And indeed, we are grieved by your departure, O Abu Thamer …
