(January 30, 2018 / JNS) Israel’s is implementing the reopening of its embassy in Jordan this week, after the Israeli and Jordanian governments earlier in January announced an agreement to restore the diplomatic office. The embassy had been closed since July 2017, when an Israeli security guard at the site fatally shot two Jordanians in what the Israeli government described as an act of self-defense.
The guard, Ziv Moyal, shot a Jordanian who attacked him with a screwdriver, while a second Jordanian was killed by a stray bullet. As part of the compromise to restart full diplomatic relations, Israel was forced to apologize for the incident as well as a previous incident involving the killing of a Jordanian judge at an Israel-Jordan border crossing in 2014. Israel also offered financial compensation to the families of the Jordanians killed in the incidents.
Israel is expected to appoint a new ambassador to Jordan in the coming weeks. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon told The Associated Press on Tuesday that a “gradual reopening” of the Jewish state’s embassy in Amman is underway.
Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994 and maintain significant security and economic cooperation, despite Jordan’s large Palestinian population that is generally disdainful of Israel.