“Daring and correct behavior.” An update on this story. “Jordan Islamists back restaurant owner’s expulsion of Israelis,” from DPA, December 10 (thanks to all who sent this in):
Amman – The Islamic Action Front, Jordan’s main opposition party, Friday supported the expulsion recently of Israeli tourists from a Jordanian restaurant in the Red Sea port of Aqaba.
‘The move by the owner of the restaurant represents a daring and correct behaviour because it reflects the conscience of Jordanians who reject all forms of normalisation with the Zionist enemy,’ IAF spokesman Mohammad Zoyoud said, referring to Israel.
The owner of the restaurant, Salwa Barghouti, reportedly ordered a number of Israeli tourists out of her restaurant in Aqaba last week after they got drunk and allegedly made jokes about other Arab customers….
It is noteworthy that the earlier Al-Arabiya report about this incident makes no mention of this. All it says is that Barghouti heard them speaking Hebrew, and asked them to leave. Surely Al-Arabiya would have mentioned this salient detail — that the Israelis were drunk and insulting the Arabs in the restaurant — if it had really happened. That someone seems to have thought it necessary to invent this charge betrays an awareness in Barghouti’s camp of the weakness of her position.