Jordanian lawmakers praise Jerusalem terror attack, criticize Israel

Jordan’s parliament praised the terrorists who carried out Friday’s deadly Temple Mount attack and criticized Israel for temporarily shutting the site down. 

The Jordanian parliament on Sunday praised the three terrorists who carried out the shooting attack on the Temple Mount on Friday, murdering two Israeli police officers. This response comes less than a day after King Abdullah II spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and condemned the attack.

The terrorists were armed with firearms as well as knives. They opened fire at a group of police officers at the Lions’ Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City, killing 22-year-old Kamil Shnaan from the Druze village of Hurfeish, and Haiel Satawa, 30, from the Druze village of Majar. They fled towards one of the mosques in the Temple Mount complex, trying to take refuge there. The three terrorist were shot and killed by Israeli police.

Jordanian lawmakers criticized Israel for closing the Temple Mount, and prayed for the souls of the three terrorists, Israeli media reported. The Temple Mount was reopened by Israel on Sunday.

“May the mercy of Allah be upon our martyrs who sowed and watered the pure land,” said Parliament Speaker Atef Tarawneh. “We will raise our heads through the sacrifice of the young Palestinians who are still fighting in the name of the nation.”

He also blessed the families of the three cousins, Ahmed Muhammad Jabarin, 29, Muhammad Hamed Abed al-Latif Jabarin, 19, and Muhammad Ahmed Mafdel Jabarin, 19, all of Umm al-Fahm, who carried out the attack. “May Allah have mercy on our young people, members of the Jabarin family, whose family members deserve to receive glory and honor,” he said.

Tarawneh condoned further terror attacks against Israelis, asserting that the “damage” Israel allegedly causes to the Al Aqsa mosque is grounds “for continuing the resistance.”

“The Israeli persistence and the severity of the crimes it is committing are the reasons for the setting of the fire of revenge in their hearts, among the generations who inherit the hatred of the occupation,” he declared.

He further claimed that it was King Abdullah, through his request to Netanyahu, who brought about the reopening of the Temple Mount.

On Saturday, hundreds of Jordanians, led by the Islamic Movement in that country, demonstrated and held vigils against what they termed Israel’s “crime” of closing the Al Aqsa Mosque, while Jordan’s Minister of Islamic Affairs, Wael Arabiyat, warned of Israel’s “unprecedented and persistant violations of Al Aqsa Mosque sanctity under the pretext of containing violence and tension.”

This is not the first time Jordan’s parliament has expressed support for Palestinian acts of terrorism.

In November 2014, the body held a prayer session for the Arab terrorists who committed the Jerusalem synagogue massacre in which five rabbis and a police officer were shot and hacked to death.

By: World Israel News Staff