Embassy killings fuel Jordan-Israel tensions
The entire Israeli Embassy staff was evacuated from Jordan after a guard shot and killed two Jordanians following a dispute on embassy grounds.
Two days after an Israeli Embassy guard shot and killed two Jordanians on July 23 in what appeared to be an argument over the installation of bedroom furniture at the assailant’s apartment, a talk-show guest on Jordan’s government-run TV station described Israel as “the usurper Zionist entity." Public acrimony against Israel has transcended even the usual scorn often directed at the Jewish state that one can hear on private TV and radio stations and read on social media platforms and local news websites.
Anti-Israel rhetoric had been building up since a crisis at Haram al-Sharif in occupied East Jerusalem erupted on July 14 following a deadly shooting in the compound. Israel’s two-day closure of Al-Aqsa Mosque, an event that last occurred in 1969, and its subsequent installing of metal detectors at the gates of the holy compound, had enraged Palestinians but also infuriated Jordanians, almost half of whom have Palestinian roots.
