Jordan to bar Israel envoy until shooting probed
King Abdullah calls on Netanyahu to try the guard who was greeted as a hero in Israel
Jordan will not allow the return of Israel’s ambassador until the shooting of two Jordanians by an embassy security guard has been properly investigated, a government official said yesterday.
“Jordan will not allow ambassador Einat Shlein or the rest of the embassy staff to return until a thorough investigation has been opened” into Sunday’s shooting, the official said.
On Thursday, King Abdullah called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to try the guard, who travelled home on Monday night with other embassy officials after being briefly questioned by Jordanian investigators.
The guard was welcomed home and greeted as a hero by Netanyahu, who embraced him and said: “You acted well, calmly and we also had an obligation to get you out.”
Israel maintained the guard had diplomatic immunity.
The Israeli foreign ministry said the Israeli guard shot dead a Jordanian worker who had come to an apartment to install furniture and had stabbed him in the back with a screwdriver.
A second Jordanian, the landlord of the apartment, was also killed — apparently by accident. He was buried on Thursday in Madaba, southwest of the capital. Jordan’s public prosecutor Akram Musaid charged on Thursday that the guard was responsible for the killings and possession of a firearm without a licence.
Tensions in the region have been high over the past two weeks after Israel introduced new invasive surveillance measures at Al Haram Al Sharif in Occupied Jerusalem. The last of them were removed on Thursday.
Jordan is the official custodian of Muslim holy sites in Occupied Jerusalem.
Protest in Amman
Meanwhile, protesters gathered near the Israeli Embassy in the Jordanian capital Amman yesterday, angry that an Israeli embassy guard who shot dead a Jordanian had returned to Israel and been granted diplomatic immunity.
A Reuters witness said around 200 people had assembled peacefully in the vicinity of the embassy. Scores chanted, “Death to Israel,” and called for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador and scrapping of an unpopular peace treaty with Israel.
A heavy Jordanian police presence had sealed off the area around the embassy so the protesters gathered nearby.
On Sunday an embassy guard shot dead Jordanian teenager Mohammad Jawawdah as well as the landlord of the house in the compound where the guard lived.