Fatal shooting casts long shadow over Israel-Jordan ties
AMMAN, Jordan — Zakariya al-Jawawdeh often visits the grave of his 16-year-old son Mohammed, watering plants and reciting a prayer. His trips to the cemetery, just a few steps from his home in Jordan’s capital of Amman, also stoke frustration that his son’s killer, an Israeli Embassy security guard, has not been held accountable.
The furniture store owner’s grievances are entangled in one of the most toxic diplomatic crises since Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994, only Israel’s second with an Arab country.
The relationship — typically low-key, but strategically important — has been “hit hard” on all levels by the July 23 shooting, next to the Israeli Embassy complex in Jordan in which the Israeli guard also killed his middle-aged Jordanian landlord, said a Jordanian official.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry, which says the guard acted in self-defence after the teen attacked him with a screw driver, declined comment on potential damage to the relationship. Spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said Israel will share the eventual results of an ongoing investigation with Jordan, but would not describe the type of inquiry under way.