Jordan, rejoicing crowds for freed killer
lunedì 13 marzo 2017 English 0 commenti
Il Giornale, March 13, 2017It’s hard not to question what kind of peace actually exists between Jordan and Israel, which was signed by Rabin and King Hussein in 1994, when you observethe scenes of jubilation–the songs chanted, the hate slogans hurled and the candies tossed – on behalf of its people and family members forAhmed Daqamseh, the murderer of seven Israeli schoolgirls who also woundedsix others in 1997, following hisprematurerelease. Irbid, his hometown north of Amman, gave him a triumphant welcome even though he was released at two in the morning. The Jordanian assassin, whoshotthe Israeli girls with a M16 rifle while they were on a class field trip, was released five years ahead of the life sentence (equivalent to 25 years under Jordanian law) that should have seen him still confined to a prison in Amman.
It’s within thisperpetual situation of ambiguity and unrelenting popular hatred that even a country like Jordan – one that is at peace with Israel -continues to fuel in order to pander to the basest instincts of the broad public, which is continually troubled by poverty and extremism. It goes without saying, but the latter certainly doesn’t help the future of one of the least extremist Arab countries thanks to the Hashemite monarchy.
Mahmed Daqamseh was guarding the Jordanian border along with other soldiers on a beautiful spring day in March 1997; peace with Israel was then just three years old.It was a tragedy unleashed by hatred and rebellion not long afterpeace had been signed north of Eilat: in a scenic place called the "Island of Peace" in Naharayim, which rests on the Jordan River andbetween the Israel-Jordan border, a class of 13-year-old girlswere enjoying the freedom ofa school trip. Daqamseh picked up his rifle and killed seven and injured six others. I, who had been inArava for the signing of the Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty in 1994, can never forget either Israel or Jordan’s shock over the massacre: King Hussein himself, a charming man who possessed a special charisma, came to Israel in order to offer his condolences and to ask forgiveness on behalf of his country to the bereaved families. At the home of the Badayev family, who had lost their daughter Shiri,he movinglyknelt before them as they sat shiva.
Those days are over, the generation of Arab leaders such as Hussein and Mubarak who seemed to have believed in thenecessity of peace with Israel appears to have been replaced by afrightened world, onethat is grippedby the fear of terrorism and therefore prone to populist demands that can somehow contain or direct it elsewhere. Already in 2013,110 out of 150 members of the Jordanian parliament signed a petition calling for the release of Daqamseh, and in 2011, itsJustice Minister Hussein Mjalli did the same,which resulted in Israel summoning Jordan’s envoy to Tel Aviv. Yesterday, Daqamseh was freed, and songs of joy and the handing out of candies celebrated the popular anti-Israeli hatred that is often expressed duringlabor union protestsorwhenever contact between Israelis and Jordanians occur vis-à-vis professional bodies. Moreover, it highlights the lack of any incentives to foster study exchanges or ties in the tourist sector between these two neighboring countries.
This is due to the fact thatover fifty percent of Jordan’s population is actually Palestinian and to the rise of Sunni fundamentalism and terrorismthat has left its mark on the country in recent years. This has resulted in the ruling classes tendency to unload their fears in relation to extremism by creating whnever they can an anti-Israel virginity: the trauma not only of the Jordanian pilot burned alive in a cage after being captured with the forces of the anti-ISIS coalition, but also of the attack that ended at Karak Castle in 2014 and left ten dead, is still alive.
The leading classes in Jordan prefer to fuel anti israeli feeling (often with religious feelinngs that take advantage of the role of Jorndan in controlling the Waqf, the muslim religious authority, and therefore the Al Aqsa Mosque, But this attitude raises a significant question: can Jordan, who is a part of the international coalition against terrorism who fights against Isis, truly combat anyterrorist threat if it forgives, istitutionally and popularly, an act of terrorism against children committed at the hands of one its own soldiers?
Translation by Amy K. Rosenthal