Khaled Yacoub Oweis
The National / September 9, 2024
Fatal shooting of three Israelis at border puts Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel at risk.
Two Jordanian lorry drivers were taken into Israeli custody on Monday, a day after a compatriot shot dead three Israeli workers at the Allenby Bridge, exacerbating between the two countries tension heightened by the war in Gaza.
The two men were being investigated in connection with the killing, the Jordanian interior ministry said, reversing its initial announcement that the drivers had been freed. The attack resulted in the closure of all three land crossings with Israel.
The ministry identified the driver as Maher al-Jazi, from the southern Ma’an province, and said the attack was “an individual act”.
A 1994 bilateral peace treaty obliges Jordan to prevent cross-border threats to Israel and vice versa, so the rare outbreak of violence at the tightly controlled border that Jordan with the Israeli-occupied West Bank has put the kingdom in a delicate position. Since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October, widespread anger in Jordan over Israel’s conduct has been rising.
It was reported the Allenby Bridge remained closed but it was not clear whether two other crossings, Sheikh Hussein in the north and the Wadi Araba between the Red Sea cities of Aqaba and Eilat, were also still shut.
The incident occurred despite extra measures taken by Jordan to secure the border with Israel since the war began in October, such as banning public assemblies near the frontier and a more expansive military presence. Peace with Israel has brought a considerable amount of US and European aid to Jordan. Since the Gaza war broke out and Yemen’s Houthi rebels began attacks on ships in the Red Sea, the kingdom has become a transit centre for containers in and out of Israel.
In the first direct Jordanian official reaction to the Allenby killing, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement overnight condemning violence, while blaming Israel for what it described as the regional impact of the Gaza war.
Jordan’s position is consistent in terms of “rejecting violence and the targeting of civilians,” but “all causes that fuel violence need to be addressed”, the statement said, adding that “continuation of the Israeli aggression against Gaza” has repercussions for the whole region.
The domestic considerations of the kingdom’s approach to the war were highlighted late on Sunday when hundreds marched through the streets of Amman in support of the Allenby Bridge attacker. As long as they do not turn into prolonged sit-ins, or openly assail the country’s foreign policy, Jordanian authorities have been allowing anti-Israeli demonstrations to take place near the border.
“We salute you Maher,” the crowd chanted. “You caused an earthquake in Israel.”
The Muslim Brotherhood, a group tolerated in Jordan, had called for the demonstration. It lasted 90 minutes and marchers distributed sweets to passers-by as the driver’s actions were celebrated.
Demonstrators also chanted in support of Hamas, the Iran-backed militants who are fighting Israel in Gaza. Authorities expelled Hamas’s leadership from Jordan in 1999, accusing the group of threatening national security.
Khaled Yacoub Oweis – Jordan Correspondent, Amman
