Reactions in Jordan are mixed over the release of Ahmed Daqamseh. Daqamseh, a former corporal in the Jordanian army, was convicted by a military court of murdering seven Israeli schoolgirls and wounding six others in the Island of Peace border area in the Jordan Valley in March 1997. He served a life sentence of 20 years under Jordanian law and was released March 12 to his family under tight security.
He was given a hero’s welcome at his village of Idbir in northern Jordan, where he told reporters — who were later barred from talking to him — not to “believe the lie of normalization with the Zionist entity” and “not to believe the lie of the two-state solution,” adding, “There is no state called Israel.” Despite his heated anti-Israel rhetoric, there are those who believe that he is being used by Islamist and other activists as a political pawn.