Arab Social Media Users Incite Against Israel Following Amman Embassy Shooting

jordan security
AP/Ben Curtis
Ali Waked

TEL AVIV — Social media users in Jordan and around the Arab world have been actively posting about the security incident at the Israeli embassy in Amman, the Jordanian capital, where an Israeli security guard shot and killed a man who tried to stab him.

Another man was wounded by the gunfire and later died.

Some social media users utilized their posts to incite against Israel’s Amman embassy.

Following a diplomatic crisis in which some Jordanian politicians called for the guard to be arrested and Jordan refused to allow him to leave the country, the guard and all Israeli diplomats from the embassy were allowed to cross the border into Israel late Monday night.

“All are in good health,” read a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, adding that the embassy staff’s return “was made possible by the close cooperation that took place in the last 24 hours between Israel and Jordan.”

The amount of online discussion of the issue in Jordan was limited compared to past events, most likely due to the sensitivity of the situation and the authorities’ lack of tolerance on the matter.

Jamal Rayyan, a senior Palestinian journalist with Al Jazeera who holds Jordanian citizenship, blamed the Israeli guard for defending himself, and wrote, “What Israel did at its embassy in Jordan it will also do with the Arab countries it maintains relations with both above the table and beneath the table. The Israeli nature is one of occupation, killing and dividing the Arabs.”

In another Tweet, Rayyan wrote, “Israel doesn’t respect sovereignty and diplomatic norms. The members of its diplomatic delegations are murderers. Israel must be deterred.”

Lebanese politician Wiam Wahhab of Hezbollah’s faction wrote, “Our people in Amman, people who respect beloved Jordan, destroy the shameful embassy.”

Jordanian-Palestinian journalist and analyst Yasser Zaatreh wrote that the specific circumstances of the incident at the embassy are still unclear, “but we know that someone was killed by the enemy. We pray to Allah that he is received as a martyr.”

In another tweet, Zaatreh wrote, “The popular resistance to the presence of an Israeli embassy in Jordan is an issue that is not in dispute. Jordan’s opposition to all types of normalization is known to everyone. The Zionist press talks about it a lot.”

Jordanian author Ayman Otoum wrote, “The Zionist entity and the Zionists working in the Zionist embassy in the Arab countries should be trembling with fear. We may be asleep but we are not dead.”

Jordanian Twitter user Ahmad Alsarhan tried to calm emotions a little by placing part of the blame on the assailant who had agreed to work at the Israeli embassy in the first place. “He went to give his services to the Israeli embassy. There was a dispute over his wages or something like that. Let that be. The issue is simple and has no valor. May Allah protect Jordan and the Jordanian people.”

Sabr Aldamoor found inspiration in the world of soccer, and wrote of the two locals who were killed, “Jordan lost two points to the Zionist entity at its home field and in front of its own crowd.”

Ahmad Chaba wrote, “The bottom line is that the (Israeli) guard will return to occupied Palestine against the will of the Jordanian authorities and with the support of mother America. Enough with the illusions. Muslims have no support.”

The Syrian Whad Salhab wrote, “Our heroic people in Jordan, the time has come to cleanse your country of the Zionist dirt and the dirt of the traitorous Zionist agents so that your country will be on the level of your people.”

 

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