Protesters demand closure of Israel’s embassy, cancelling of peace treaty

AMMAN —  Around 300 Jordanians took to the streets in the western Amman neighbourhood of Rabieh on Friday to protest the killing of two Jordanians by an Israeli security guard last Sunday. 

Protesters also demanded the closure of the Israeli embassy and the cancellation of the Wadi Araba peace treaty between Jordan and Israel, which was signed in 1994. 

Before the start of the demonstration, protesters attended Friday prayer at Al Kalouti Mosque. 

Later, they marched towards the Israel embassy, chanting slogans against Israel, including “death to Israel”, “no embassy for the [Zionist] entity” and “We sacrifice our soul and our blood for the sake of Palestine”. 

They also carried banners in solidarity with Palestine and waved Jordanian and Palestinian flags. 

One of the protesters, Abu Tariq al Thaher, argued that there should be no Israeli embassy in Jordan, describing Jordanians and Palestinians who have been killed by Israelis as “martyrs”.

Raghad Jarwan, a university student, said that despite the fact that Palestinians have been defending Al Aqsa unarmed, they stood united and this contributed to their success. 

“Such events show that the Jordanian people will never ignore these acts and we do not surrender,” she added. 

Sixteen-year-old Mohammad Jawawdeh was killed during a shooting in a residential building in Rabieh, near the Israeli embassy on Sunday. A Jordanian doctor, Bashar Hamarneh, who owned the building, was also shot during the incident and later died of his injuries. 

Public Security Department investigators concluded that an argument over the victim’s “delay in delivering furniture to the embassy staffer’s apartment” escalated into a physical attack on the embassy employee by the victim, causing him injuries.