Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 23 - 29 November 2000 Issue No.509
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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Fallout in Jordan

By Lola Keilani

An attack on the vice consul in the Israeli embassy in Amman has come as no surprise to Jordanians, the majority of whom have been calling on the government to sever all diplomatic ties with Israel since the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada eight weeks ago.

Yoram Havivian was wounded in a drive-by shooting in Amman early Sunday morning while getting into his car. A government statement said several bullets shattered the car window. "Flying bits of glass hit the vice consul, causing slight injury," it added.

Hospital administrator Amid Abdel-Nour said Havivian was conscious when he was admitted. "He was injured in the right arm, elbow, hand and left thigh. He also had a slight wound in the chest," Abdel-Nour said.

"We told him he needed minor surgery to clean the wound [of glass splinters] and we were about to begin the operation when he chose to have it in Israel instead."

The Israeli diplomat was residing in the posh area of Rabia, where the Israeli embassy is located and where security measures have been tightened by Jordanian authorities and Israeli personnel. "For the past eight weeks tanks have been positioned all around this area," said a resident of Rabia. "It has become a nightmare to move around our neighborhood," she added.

"Jordanians just stood and watched me," Havivian said. "They asked me in Arabic what happened but no one offered to call (for help). I assume they know who I am, they know I work in the Israeli embassy."

Crown Prince Hashem, standing in for King Abdullah who was abroad at the time of the incident, called the Israeli ambassador in Jordan, David Dadon, and promised that Amman will do whatever it could to apprehend the assailant.

Jordanian authorities announced that an investigating team, including representatives from various security agencies, was formed. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said it was sending its own team to investigate.

According to official sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, a lone gunman fired at the diplomat, using an automatic weapon, before escaping. Two previously unknown groups claimed responsibility for the attack; one called itself the Jordan Islamic Resistance Movement. It warned that further attacks in Amman are to be expected. "We warn all Zionists in Jordan that they will be the target of our attacks and we call on, even warn, the Jordanian government, to chase them out," the statement, sent to the Agence France Press office in Beirut, said.

"This attack was not the first and will not be the last until diplomatic relations are broken with the Zionists and the last Zionist is chased out of Jordan," the statement added.

The Qatari-based Al-Jazira television station said it had received a statement from another organisation, "The Group of the Warrior Ahmed Daqamseh," also claiming responsibility for the attack. The group is named after the Jordanian soldier who in March 1997 shot dead seven Israeli schoolgirls and injured several others in the Baqoura area in northern Jordan.

"The statement said this attack is not the first and will not be the last until diplomatic relations between Jordan and Israel are severed," Al-Jazira reported.

Clashes in the occupied Palestinian territories have often had a ripple effect in neighbouring Jordan which has a large Palestinian population. In November 1997, two Israeli embassy guards were shot at in Amman after former right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ordered the opening of a tunnel beneath Al-Aqsa Mosque, leading to violent protests by Palestinians. Two years later, a Mossad hit-team tried to assassinate Khaled Mishaal, a Hamas leader, in Amman. Shots were fired at the Israeli embassy days after four Hamas leaders, including Mishaal, were deported to Qatar. Jordanian soldier Ahmed Daqamseh said during his trial in November 1997 that one of the main reasons for shooting the Israeli girls was that he saw Al-Aqsa Mosque defiled by Jewish tourists.

Anti-Israeli sentiments have been running high since the Intifada broke out on 28 September. Protesters have demanded the cutting off of diplomatic ties between Israel and Jordan and the severance of lower-level relations Tel Aviv has with other Arab countries.

One dreaded scenario Jordanians envision is an influx of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza into Jordan. It is creating genuine fear among many Jordanians who see such an exodus as a step towards transforming Jordan into an undeclared Palestinian state.

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