Israel complained to Jordan after identity of embassy guard leaked — report
Amman said to reject criticism, claiming Netanyahu’s public welcome of Ziv Moyal was to blame for publicity after Amman shooting
Israel complained to Jordanian authorities after the identity of the embassy guard who shot dead two Jordanian nationals was published in local newspapers last month, reports in Arab media said on Saturday.
According to Jordanian sources, Israel said the publication of Ziv Moyal’s diplomatic ID card in a Jordanian newspaper was a deliberate leak that threatened his personal safety, the London-based pan-Arabic daily Rai al-Youm reported.
Amman rejected the Israeli accusation, the report said, claiming that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s public welcome of Moyal was responsible for the guard’s leaked identity, not Jordanian media.
The July 23 incident, in which Moyal shot to death two Jordanians at the embassy compound as he was being stabbed by one of them with a screwdriver, sparked a diplomatic crisis between Israel and Jordan, with Jordan briefly refusing to allow Moyal to return to Israel or extend diplomatic immunity to him, threatening a larger crisis over the issue.
Moyal and the rest of the embassy staff were eventually allowed to return to Israel a day later, following a diplomatic push that included a phone call between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordan’s King Abdullah II, along with US intervention and a visit by the head of the Shin Bet security agency Nadav Argaman to Amman.
Days after the incident, Israel confirmed Moyal’s identity after Jordanian media published a photo of his diplomatic ID card, along with his name and photo.
Jordan has been pressing Israel to probe the incident. Relations between the two nations were already being tested as a result of violence at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which is administered by a Jordanian-controlled Islamic trust.
Last week, Moyal was questioned by Israeli authorities over the affair. He told them 17-year-old Mohammed Jawawdeh stabbed him after learning that he was Israeli, Channel 10 reported at the time.
Jawawdeh, the son of a furniture store owner, was in an embassy residence installing a bedroom set at the time of the incident.
The landlord, Bashar Hamarneh, was also hit by a bullet and later died of his wounds.
On Friday, the State Prosecutor’s office instructed police to open a preliminary investigation into the incident.
In a statement, the Justice Ministry said the order from the State Prosecutor’s Office came at the behest of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit.
“The investigation will be carried out with the assistance of the State Prosecutor’s Office, and later, in light of [the] findings that come up, the possibility of turning to the Jordanian authorities to request the transfer of additional materials will be weighed,” the Justice Ministry said.
Channel 2 reported Thursday that the police was preparing to send a team to Jordan to gather materials.
The incident occurred during a period of already strained ties between Jerusalem and Amman over Israel’s decision to install metal detectors at entrances to the Temple Mount following a July 14 terror attack at the Jerusalem holy site. In that attack, three Arab Israelis shot dead two Israeli police officers with weapons smuggled into the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The additional security measures were removed hours after the embassy staff was allowed to return to Israel.
On Friday, hundreds of Jordanians protested against Israel outside the embassy in Amman, where they called for the embassy to be shut down and for a natural gas deal with Israel to be nixed.
