Israel calls on Jordanian media to stop ‘incitement’

Ramallah: The Israeli Embassy in Amman has issued a statement urging the Jordanian media to refrain from praising attacks against Israelis.

The statement was issued in response to an article by Yasser Al Zaatrah in the Arabic daily Al Dustur titled “We have to rely on the heroic acts in the West Bank and [occupied] Jerusalem.”

In its statement, the Israeli Embassy expressed its disgust at what it saw as a provocation to violence and came out against the article’s author, arguing that Al Zaatrah is increasing tension between Israelis and Palestinians.

“The article amounted to incitement to kill Israelis in a Jordanian newspaper,” said the Israeli statement. “We expect the publication of such barbaric articles to cease.”

The Jordanian media has been refusing to print messages from the Israeli Embassy in Amman but it was published on this occasion after the unprecedented insistence of the embassy spokesman Gilad Nol.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said in response that “the Israeli Embassy in Amman follows the Jordanian media and responds through their Facebook page regarding every publication containing anti-Semitism or incitement.”

The ministry expressed joy and happiness at the publication of the embassy’s statement. “We are pleased that the Jordanian media chose to report the embassy’s reaction.”

In October 1994, Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty at the southern border post of Wadi Araba. In doing so, Jordan became the second Arab state to sign a peace deal with Israel after Egypt.

In his article published on Wednesday, Al Zaatrah argued that the Palestinian leadership categorically rejects resistance and tries to shift the essence of the struggle to make it appear “a border dispute.”

He suggested that this gives the leadership the chance to claim that it was sticking to Palestinians’ undisputed basic rights and that the Palestinian goal will be achieved by international pressure put on Israel. “Individual operations against the Israelis in the West Bank and [occupied] Jerusalem are just the right path for the Palestinians and this culture should be nurtured in the dictionaries of all the Palestinian factions,” he said.

“The confusion in which the Palestinian cause currently lives — between the siege on the Gaza Strip and uncontrolled security coordination with Israel in the West Bank — should come to an end and this miserable chapter of the Palestinian history should be flipped away,” he said. “The direction of the Palestinian cause must be corrected instantly or else the Palestinians will remain divided and split for a much longer time.”