Journalists For Al-Jazeera And Qatari Dailies Take To Social Media To Praise Border-Crossing Attack, Call To Intensify Attacks On Israel

Writing on their X (formerly Twitter) accounts, journalists working for the Qatari media, and especially for the Al-Jazeera network, celebrated the September 8, 2024 attack at the border crossing between Israel and Jordan, in which a Jordanian truck driver shot to death three Israelis employed at the crossing.[1] The journalists called the shooter a "hero," "martyr," and "brave man with a strong conscience," and a columnist for Qatar's Al-Sharq daily advocated increasing attacks of this kind "from every direction."   

The following is a sampling of these responses:

Al-Jazeera Journalists: Allah Bless The Heroic Martyred Truck Driver

Al-Jazeera presenter Ayman Azzam wrote: "This is the Jordanians' day. Allah bless the heroic martyred truck driver, his truck and his gun."[2]

Ahmad Khalifa, an Al-Jazeera reporter in Libya, likewise blessed the shooter, writing: "Allah bless the brave people of Jordan."[3]

Ayman Azzam's post

Al-Jazeera Presenter: This Jordanian Has Joined "The Processions Of Martyrs  Who Are The Flowers Of The History Of The Arab And Islamic Struggle"

In another post, Ayman Azzam wrote: "The volcano of this Jordanian, Muslim and Arab citizen erupted, as previously happened with the Egyptian knight Muhammad Saleh [an Egyptian police officer who crossed the border into Israel on June 3, 2023 and murdered three Israeli soldiers], the knight Suleiman Khater [an Egyptian police officer who murdered seven Israeli tourists in Sinai in 1985] and the processions of martyrs  who are the flowers of the history of the Arab and Islamic struggle. Just as citizens erupted from time to time without calculation, so will the volcanoes of the peoples' rage erupt one day to restore Allah's balance of justice…"[4]

Al-Jazeera Reporter: The Military Achievement Of The Battle Of Karameh Has Repeated Itself

Al-Jazeera reporter Fatima Triki focused on the site of the attack – the Allenby Bridge Border Crossing, also called the Karameh Border Crossing, after the 1968 Battle of Karameh.[5] She wrote: "The Al-Karameh crossing between Jordan and Palestine is named after the Battle of Karameh, of March 1968, in which the Jordanians and Palestinians made an important military achievement and caused the Israeli occupation forces heavy losses. [Today] history is repeating itself. #Three_bullets_for_three_dead."[6]

Fatima Triki's post

Qatari Journalist: The Shooter Was Brave And Had A Strong Conscience; Such Operations Must Increase

Qatari journalist Abdullah Al-Amadi, who has a column in the Qatari daily Al-Sharq, wrote on his X account: “It appears that a brave Jordanian truck driver with a strong conscience, who was shocked that trucks carrying Jordanian merchandise arrive in Israel on a daily basis while the people of Gaza suffer from deliberate starvation, got this off his chest by [firing] bullets towards the chests of the Zionists, avenging the thousands of Gazan martyrs. Such operations have an impact on the monstrous entity [i.e. Israel] and they must be increased from every direction…”[7]

Abdullah Al-Amadi's  post

Egyptian journalist and documentarian Assaad Taha, who also has a column in Al-Sharq, praised the attack, writing: “Resistance, more resistance and more resistance." In another post, he wrote: "The Al-Karameh [lit. ‘honor’] Crossing – its name is now fitting.”[8]

Al-Sharq Columnist: “The Most Beautiful Hat-Trick”

Kuwaiti journalist Saadiah Mufarreh, also a columnist for Al-Sharq, shared on her X account a graphic depicting a man in a Jordanian keffiyeh firing a pistol at three Israeli soldiers.[9] The latter are marked with inverted triangles, a symbol that has been used by Hamas and its supporters since the beginning of the war in Gaza to designate Israeli targets about to be attacked.[10] The red triangles in the graphic bear the seven-pointed star present on the Jordanian national flag, and the image caption reads “The Jordanian marked them at point-blank range.” Mufarreh commented, “The most beautiful hat-trick,” alongside three red triangle emojis.[11]

Saadiah Mufarreh's post

Columnist For Qatari Daily Al-Watan: As Long As The Quran Is In Our Hearts, We Will Continue To Loathe The Israelis Like Mangy Dogs

Palestinian writer and journalist Adham Sharkawi, who writes a column in the Qatari daily Al-Watan, shared a photo of sweets being distributed in Jordan following the attack, and commented: “Netanyahu said years ago: ‘The Arab nations are an obstacle to normalization.’ [The Israelis] know very well that no matter what they try, nobody will love them. As long as this Quran is in our hearts, we will regard them like mangy dogs whose very mention fills us with loathing.”[7]

Adham Sharkawi's post