PM Netanyahu pans Jordan for siding with terrorist

Amman said Israel, as occupier, to blame for police officer killing Jordanian national who attempted to stab him.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
Updated: MAY 14, 2017 09:13
CCTV Footage of stabbing Attack Old City Jerusalem (Credit: Israel Police)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed Jordan for not condemning Saturday’s terror attack in Jerusalem’s Old City, in which one of its citizens stabbed an Israeli police officer.
"It is time that Jordan ceases its double sided game. Just as Israel condemns terror attacks in Jordan, Jordan must condemn terrorist attacks in Israel. Terror is terror,” Netanyahu’s Office said.
A security video released by the police showed the assailant Mohammed Abdullah Salim al-Kasaji, 57, wearing a suit and clutching a knife. He pushed the officer onto the ground and stabbed him. The officer managed to stand back up briefly only to be pushed back by Kasaji.
Two Israelis on their way back from the Western Wall saw the incident and tried to help the officer, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said. Although the officer was wounded, he managed to pull out his gun and kill Kasaji, Samri said.
She added that Kasaji had entered Israel with a tourist group several days earlier.
One person was lightly wounded and treated on the scene. Magen David Adom transported the officer to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center where he is in moderate condition.
Police arrested a shopkeeper who tried to prevent the Israelis from helping the officer, Samri said.
Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad al Momani disputed the Israeli account of the incident, which he described as an "ugly crime.”
"The Israeli government as the occupying power bears responsibility over the shooting of a Jordanian citizen in occupied eastern Jerusalem today that caused his martyrdom," al Momani told Jordanian state news agency Petra.
He made no mention of Kasaji’s attack on the officer.
The Prime Minister’s Office said that the Jordanian response was “infuriating” and that video evidence clearly showed what happened.
It’s the second such attack in less than a year. In September a Jordanian citizen was killed with a knife in each hand after he tried to attack Israeli police officers near the Old City’s Damascus Gate.
Separately in the West Bank police arrested a Palestinian woman in her 20s at a checkpoint near the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Border Police thought she looked suspicious. They found a knife in her possession after they stopped and search her. Based on an initial investigation they believe she planned to attack the security forces at the checkpoint, Samri said.
Jpost Staff and Reuters contributed to this story.


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