Honouring Jew-Killers

Jordan: The negative stereotype most highly rated in Jordan, with a general score of 81%, was “People hate Jews because of the way Jews behave” at 84%. Despite signing a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, many in the country still oppose normalization with the Jewish state.
Anti-Defamation League global survey

"By Allah, it is an honor to incite against the Jews. It is a great accomplishment to provoke and incense them."

"Let us continue with similar decisions, because this is what the Jordanian people want. Our people in Palestine expect us to support them, and to recite Koranic verses for the souls of their martyrs. [It is the least Amman can do for] heroes who defend the honour of the Arab nation."

"In regards to the martyrs that smashed and murdered the Zionists, I am asking for this respected parliament to stand up and read the Al Fatiha [the prayer fronting the Koran] to glorify their pure souls and to glorify the souls of all of the martyrs in the Arab and Islamic nation."

"The Jews respect neither treaties nor human beings. [Jews] respect nothing… What have the Jews ever given us?"

"Hating the Jews is a great honor for me and it makes me walk with my head high because they are worthy of hatred. They are not decent people. Any man of honor should hate the Jews."

"[Parliament should debate] the statements of [Nevo], that pig, the descendants of apes and pigs, who tried to drive a wedge between the parliament and the king."

Jordanian Member of Parliament Khalil Attieh 

Blue Stars of David painted in the foyer of the Amman courthouse where Jordanian-Palestinian judge Raed Zeiter, killed while crossing into the West Bank, worked. (photo credit: Michal Shmulovich)

The honourable MP Atieh was referring to Israel's ambassador to Jordan, Daniel Nevo, who had the unmitigated nerve to criticize parliament's welcome of Khalil Attieh's reasoned speech to the democratic parliament of the Hashemite Kingdom, which has signed a peace treaty with Israel and with whom it does brisk commercial trade. MP Atieh took umbrage at Ambassador Nevo's denunciation of the commemoration that took place at Mr. Atieh's behest to honour the terrorists who attacked the Har Nof synagogue in Jerusalem, killing five Jews and an Israeli policeman.

MP Atieh was certainly not alone in glorifying the deeds of Ghassan and Uday Abu Jamal, the two Palestinians who committed the attack on the synagogue in November. Jordanian MP Bassam al-Manaseer, Chairman of the Arab and International Affairs parliamentary committee, held his colleague's statements in high esteem: "If what we did in parliament is considered incitement, just because we stood by the Palestinian people, then we welcome the policy of incitement."

The Jordanian government, led by King Abdullah II, initially condemned the November 18 attack on the Jerusalem synagogue, deploring the deaths, and speaking to the issue of all violence against civilians in Jerusalem to be rejected and condemned. The proudly outspoken Jordanian MPs felt otherwise, and the reason is not all that surprising. Palestinians make up the majority of the Jordanian population, and Queen Rania is herself of Palestinian origin.

Turn the situation around, and imagine two Jewish Israelis intent on wreaking revenge on Palestinians for the never-ending attacks on Jews, killing innocent civilians. It has happened. What has not happened is that the Israeli Jews who committed such criminal offences were not congratulated by any members of the Knesset for defending the honour of Jews; they were swiftly arrested, tried in a court of law, found guilty of their crimes and imprisoned.

One can only shudder in contemplation of the wildly violent outrage that would manifest itself in the Arab and Muslim world were Jewish parliamentarians ever to offer such morally indefensible positions in a triumph of Jewish exceptionalism equating honour with killing along with the anti-Semtic inflammatory slanders that accompanied the Jordanian celebration, reversed to slander Arab Muslims as 'apes' and 'descendants of pigs'.