By Peter Lyukimson, Israel. Exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza
Despite a sudden spark of anti-Israel protests in Jordan and calls by the local opposition to kick the Israeli ambassador out, the Israeli prime minister’s office assures that there would be no crisis in Israeli-Jordanian relations and their leaders are always in touch.
The outcries and tensions in relations between Jordan and Israel were caused by a recent tragic incident on the Allenby Pass on March 10. According to the Israeli military police, Raed Zariat, a judge from Aman, suddenly cried “Allah akbar!” during a document check of Jordanian citizens on the territory of Israel and Palestine and attacked an Israeli border guard with an iron rod, trying to take his weapon. Another border guard shot the attacker in the leg, though that did not stop Zariat. Holding the border guard, he continued choking him and trying to take his submachine gun. Then, two border guards killed Zarit. Together with the leg wound, the man was shot five times. Passengers of the Jordanian bus undergoing the document check confirmed the story.
“Murder of a judge,” as Jordanian mass media called the incident, provoked outrage of Jordan towards Israel. Jordanian politicians and journalists cannot believe that Raed Zariat attacked an Israeli soldier and called it a murder of an Arab. The dead judge’s family does not believe in the story either and insists that he was a peaceful and very even-tempered man who was not part of any extremist groups.
According to Jordanian mass media, Raed Zariat was born in rich and influential Palestinian family from Nablus. After receiving a degree in law, he decided to stay there, got married, gave birth to two children. He became the city judge in 2011.
Strangeness starts on the day of his death. On March 10, he suddenly skipped work. He called his workmates and said that he needed to see relatives in Nablus. The judge’s father, ex-judge Ala Zariat, assures that he talked with his son in the morning and was absolutely unaware of his plans to visit Nablus.
It turned out that Raed Zariat’s five-year old son was on the brink of death and doctors had told him the day before that had been no chance to save him. This may signify that judge Zariat was in a very depressed condition and was possibly planning a suicide. But Islam (just as Judaism) does not allow suicides and Raed Zariat decided to die as a martyr. This may be the explanation why he kept struggling with the soldier even after getting a shot.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed condolences to Jordanian authorities and proposed formation of a joint Jordanian-Israeli commission to investigate judge Zariat’s death. The proposal was accepted. At the same time, the Jordanian government sent additional officers to protect the Israeli Embassy in Aman.
Curiously, the tragedy in Allenby happened on the same day Tel Aviv was hosting a conference at the National Security Center. At the conference, Israeli military were discussing deployment of new Arrow and Iron Dome missile defenses to cover Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The discussion alone is a sign of high level of relations between the four states.
Incidents on the Jordanian-Israeli border a very rare, though hundreds of Jordanians and Israelis visit each other’s countries, not to mention the thousands of tourists.
The most tragic incident happened at the Naharaim Island, also known as the Peace Island, in 1997. Ahmad Dakamse, a Jordanian border guard, opened fire at a group of Israeli school girls. 7 Jewish girls were killed and 6 injured. King Hussein of Jordan visited Israel after the incident. Dropping to his knees, the King asked parents of the killed girls for forgiveness and promised that the murderer will be punished severely. The border guard got life imprisonment, though the Jordanian parliament was planning to release him in 2011. King Abdullah II would not allow him out of jail.
