Prime Minister Netanyahu with the embassy guard upon his return to Israel
Photo: Haim Zach/GPO
Jordanians waiting for Netanyahu to apologize
Analysis: The attorney general’s office in Amman has sent Jerusalem the findings of its investigation into the Israeli embassy shooting incident, and Israel has promised to speed up its own probe. Meanwhile, the family of the landlord killed in the incident has been asked not to accept any financial compensation from Israel. All Jordan wants are two words from Israel’s prime minister: ‘I’m sorry.’
I suddenly realized, when seeing the pictures from the mourners’ tent, that I had met Dr. Bashar Hamarneh, the victim of the shooting
at the security guard’s apartment in the Israeli Embassy compound in Amman.
It was three or four years ago, in a Jerusalem restaurant, when the Jordanian gentleman, an orthopedist, told me enthusiastically he had visited Israel many times in the past. How do you manage to get an entry permit, I asked curiously, knowing it’s an exhausting process. I live with the Israelis “in the same neighborhood,” he replied with a smile, and I have been renting them apartments since the day the embassy opened.
“We’re quite friendly,” Dr. Bashar leaned over to whisper in my ear, offering to give me a guided tour of his hometown Madaba, south of Amman, where he was buried three days ago. The name of a mutual friend, Dr. Mustafa Hamarneh, an intellectual and Jordanian parliament member, was raised during the meeting. His American wife, Jenny, was the legendary editor-in-chief of the Jordan Times until her death two years ago. A respected, well-established family. I sent a letter of condolence on Saturday. It was hard to find words which would be both warm and convincing.
Jordan’s King Abdullah with the father of the killed youth. The Israeli guard’s immunity issue is troubling both government ministers and the angry protestors
Now it seems both sides have decided to take a break. The attorney general’s office in Amman sent Jerusalem the findings of the Jordanian investigation, and Israel promised to speed up its own examination of the incident with security guard Ziv. Meanwhile, the Israeli diplomats are stuck in Jerusalem.
Following heavy hints dropped by the Israeli media, the Hamarneh family was asked not to accept any financial compensation from Israel. It’s more important for them, I understood Saturday, to receive an apology from Prime Minister Netanyahu. All he has to do is say two words: “I’m sorry.”
The testimony provided by the driver of the furniture truck, who disappeared last Sunday night, was revealed for the first time Saturday. If what his wife says matches the version the security guard gave the Jordanian interior ministry investigators, the affair is a lot more complicated than the little we were able to read and hear.
This is the testimony that was published in Jordan on Saturday and distributed across the Arab world: The driver, Maher al-Juneidi, insists—according to his wife, Buteina Abu Rish—that there was a box of nails involved, not a screwdriver. According to his version, the youth, Mohammad Omar Jawawdeh, brought furniture to the bedroom in the security guard’s apartment, which was paid for by the landlord, Dr. Hamarneh. The furniture assembly began at 4 pm, and after two hours it turned out that there were some nails missing. The teen left the apartment, and when he returned from the truck with the toolbox, something raised the security guard’s suspicion. An argument erupted, the youth stabbed him, the security guard was injured, pulled out a gun and fired. Dr. Hamarneh fell down together with the teen. The driver fled to another room, locked the door and called for help. The security guard called for help too. When the Jordanian rescue forces arrived, they couldn’t find the Israeli, who had escaped in the meantime to the embassy building.
I’m not sure that’s a reliable testimony. After all, the driver works for the furniture factory owner, the father of the killed teen. Our investigators are also taking into account the fact that the teen’s family originally comes from a village near Hebron, and the timing of the incident, at the height of the Temple Mount crisis. The funeral procession came out of the large Palestinian refugee camp Wihdat, in the Amman suburbs. The driver, al-Juneidi, was detained for thorough questioning until the weekend, and then chose to hide in the home of relatives, far from the scene of the event.
Jordan’s attorney general charged the security guard with two counts of murder and with carrying an unlicensed weapon. The first charge ignores the chain of events, and the second charge is strange. Israeli security guards make sure to register the type and number of weapon, as well as their personal details, with the authorities of the state they serve in. With this whole mess in Amman, let’s hope the gun license was valid. From the Israeli side, it’s clear that the security guard—who holds a diplomatic passport—has diplomatic immunity. Amman, on the other hand, is insisting on making a distinction: Either his job is to defend Israel’s emissaries, or he is an unarmed diplomat who is entitled to restricted immunity only.
The immunity issue is troubling both the government ministers in Jordan and the angry protestors: How was the security guard allowed to return to Israel after the interior minister had promised the youth’s parents that justice would be served and that the guard would be prosecuted in the kingdom? The foreign minister has already clarified: We’re acting according to the international code and we expect the Israeli side to do the same.
The shooting incident at the embassy compound could also have a negative effect on the return of Israeli diplomats to Cairo. In Ankara, the Israeli representative’s rules of conduct have been toughened. When Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won’t stop people from attacking synagogues in his country, diplomats are preparing to curb any bad surprises.
