Netanyahu, Abdullah end diplomatic showdown over embassy shooting
JERUSALEM >> Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came under mounting pressure Monday to remove controversial metal detectors he had ordered placed at the entrances to the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City.
In a telephone call that helped resolve a standoff over a shooting at Israel’s embassy in Amman, Jordan’s King Abdullah II urged Netanyahu to “remove the cause” of the current crisis, according to Jordan’s official news service.
Israeli authorities installed the scanners after three Arab Israeli gunmen smuggled homemade machine guns into the alAqsa Mosque compound on July 14, then shot and killed two Israeli policemen at the site, which both Muslims and Jews regard as holy.
The unilateral decision to set up the metal detectors angered Jordan, the official custodian of the Jerusalem mosque, and sparked a surge of deadly violence and protests in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Amman, Jordan’s capital.
On Sunday, a Jordanian workman of Palestinian descent used a screwdriver to stab and wound an Israeli security guard at the Israeli Embassy compound in Amman. The guard shot and killed the assailant and killed another Jordanian, reportedly an innocent bystander.
Fearing violence against its diplomats, Israel sought to have its embassy staff, including the guard, quickly leave Amman and return to Israel.
Jordan balked and initially blocked their departure, insisting that the guard first be interrogated about the killing. Israel claimed diplomatic immunity on his behalf.
Late Monday night, the Israeli diplomats and embassy staff, including the guard, were allowed to return to Israel.
The prime minister’s office denied that Jordan had demanded the detectors be removed as a condition of allowing the embassy staff to leave Amman for Israel.
Even so, Israeli media reported that the king and the prime minister were close to a deal on new security arrangements at the mosque.
“The metal detectors will be removed; the security guard will be returned,” Israel’s Channel 2 News reported.
The Palestinian U.N. ambassador, Riyad Mansour, warned that Palestinians will stay in the streets until the metal detectors and any other obstacles are removed, the Associated Press reported.
Mansour said the Palestinians condemn in the strongest terms the closing of the mosque for the first time since 1969 and demand a return of the status quo.
The U.N. Security Council met behind closed doors Monday to discuss the violence in Jerusalem and Jordan and planned a second, open session on Tuesday.
“We are calling on all parties to refrain from any act or statement that could exacerbate tensions and to work toward easing the situation,” France’s U.N. ambassador, François Delattre, told reporters.