Jordanian protesters at Israeli embassy call for ending peace treaty

Protestors chanting slogans during a demonstration near the Israeli embassy in Amman, Jordan July 28, 2017. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed Protestors chanting slogans during a demonstration near the Israeli embassy in Amman, Jordan July 28, 2017. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed

AMMAN (Reuters) – Protesters gathered near the Israeli Embassy in the Jordanian capital Amman on Friday, angry that an Israeli embassy guard who shot dead a Jordanian had returned to Israel and been granted diplomatic immunity.

A Reuters witness said around 200 people had assembled peacefully in the vicinity of the embassy. Scores chanted, “Death to Israel,” and called for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador and scrapping of an unpopular peace treaty with Israel.

A heavy Jordanian police presence had sealed off the area around the embassy so the protesters gathered nearby.

On Sunday an embassy guard shot dead Jordanian teenager Mohammad Jawawdah as well as the landlord of the house in the compound where the guard lived. Israel said the guard had been defending himself after Jawawdah assaulted him with a screwdriver in a “terrorist attack”.

Jordan’s King Abdullah angrily demanded on Thursday that Israel put the guard on trial.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the guard a hero’s embrace after Israel brought him home under diplomatic immunity. King Abdullah said Netanyahu’s behavior was “provocative on all fronts and enrages us, destabilize security and fuels extremism”.

(Reporting by Suleiman al Khalidi in Amman; Writing by Lisa Barrington in Beirut; editing by Mark Heinrich)

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