Jordanian PM sends condolence letter to families of Har Nof terrorists

Missive comes after Amman MPs held moment of silence for E. Jerusalem cousins who killed five in synagogue attack Tuesday

Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour speaks during a press conference in the capital, Amman, on November 9, 2014, after the government's decision to recall its ambassador to Israel. (photo credit: AFP/Khalil Mazraawi)
Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour speaks during a press conference in the capital, Amman, on November 9, 2014, after the government's decision to recall its ambassador to Israel. (photo credit: AFP/Khalil Mazraawi)

The Jordanian prime minister, Abdullah Ensour, sent a condolence letter to the families of the two Palestinian terrorists who killed five Israelis in a terror attack at a synagogue in Jerusalem on Tuesday morning.

“I ask God to envelope them with mercy and to grant you with patience, comfort and recovery from your grief,” Ensour wrote in the letter, according to Channel 10.

On Wednesday, Jordanian parliament members held a moment of silence and read Koran verses aloud in memory of the two terrorists, cousins Uday Abu Jamal and Ghassan Abu Jamal from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber.

“Regarding the martyrs who bombed and murdered Zionists, I’m asking the respected parliament to stand up and to read the al-Fatiha [verse from the first chapter of the Quran] to glorify their pure souls and the souls of all the martyrs in the Arab and Muslim nations,” an unnamed MP said, according to a Channel 10 translation of the remarks at the parliament session.

Screenshot from a Channel 10 report on November 19, 2014 on the Jordanian Parliament's moment of silence for the two Palestinian terrorists who killed five people in a terror attack on a Jerusalem synagogue on November 18, 2014.
Screenshot from a Channel 10 report on November 19, 2014 on the Jordanian Parliament’s moment of silence for the two Palestinian terrorists who killed five people in a terror attack on a Jerusalem synagogue on November 18, 2014.

The Jordanian government, however, had issued a statement in which it condemned the attack, adding that all acts of violence against civilians in Jerusalem must be denounced, according to Israel Radio.

Just last week, Jordan was the host of a trilateral summit between King Abdullah II, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which it was agreed that steps would be taken to calm the situation surrounding the Temple Mount and East Jerusalem.

The two terrorists from Jabel Mukaber who carried out the attack on a Har Nof synagogue, November 18, 2014 (screen capture: Channel 2)
The two terrorists from Jabel Mukaber who carried out the attack on a Har Nof synagogue, November 18, 2014 (screen capture: Channel 2)

On Tuesday morning, the two Palestinian terrorists stormed the synagogue, and killed four worshipers. A Druze police officer, who was the first officer on the scene of the attack in Har Nof, was shot in the head in the shootout in which the two terrorists were killed. He later died of his injuries.

On Wednesday, thousands including President Reuven Rivlin attended his funeral. Zidan Saif left behind a wife and a fourth-month-old baby girl.

On Tuesday, hours after the deadly attack, three of the four victims — Rabbis Aryeh Kupinsky, 40, Avraham Shmuel Goldberg, and Kalman Levine, 50 — were laid to rest in a joint funeral at the Har Hamenuhot cemetery. Rabbi Moshe Twersky, 59, was buried earlier in the day.

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