Anti-Israel anger rising in Jordan after judge's killing
Protests in Jordan against Israel’s killing of a Palestinian-Jordanian judge have reached unprecedented levels, giving Amman the chance to readdress discrepancies in its treaty with Israel.
Tensions are on the rise between Jordan and Israel after Jordanian-Palestinian judge Raed Zuaiter was shot and killed on March 10 by Israeli soldiers at the King Hussein (Allenby) Bridge. Public protests over the incident escalated to unprecedented levels and included an explicit demand to abolish the 1994 peace treaty signed by Israel and Jordan. The incident has exacerbated tensions in an already unstable political environment in Jordan, where a number of protests have erupted in the past year. How the government manages the crisis will prove crucial to its relations with the Jordanian public in general and to the stability of the kingdom in particular.
The Jordanian government condemned the shooting in “strong language” when Foreign Affairs Minister Nasser Judeh summoned the Israeli charge d'affaires. It also demanded that the results of Israel's investigation of the shooting be shared with Amman. Some in Jordan, especially the political parties, denounced the government's acceptance of a unilateral Israeli probe as “weak.”
