| Island of Peace massacre | |
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The attack site
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| Location | Island of Peace on the Israeli-Jordanian border |
| Date | March 13, 1997 |
| Attack type | Mass murder |
| Weapon(s) | M-16 rifle |
| Deaths | 7 Israeli schoolgirls |
| Injured | 5 Israeli schoolgirls 1 Israeli teacher |
| Perpetrator(s) | Jordanian Army Corporal Ahmed Daqamseh |
The Island of Peace massacre was a Mass murder attack that occurred at the Island of Peace site in Naharayim on March 13, 1997 in which a Jordanian soldier opened fire at a large group of Israeli schoolgirls from the AMIT Fuerst School in Beit Shemesh who were on a class field trip, killing seven of them and injuring six others.
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On Thursday, March 13, 1997, 80 seventh and eight grade schoolgirls from the Feurst School in Beit Shemesh, west of Jerusalem, were on a field trip to the Jordan Valley and the Golan Heights. Part of the trip was to Naharayim, visiting the "Island of Peace", a joint Israeli-Jordanian tourist resort under Jordanian rule.[1][2]
During the afternoon, the class reached the "Island of Peace" site, the girls got off the bus. As the girls were heading towards the observatory a Jordanian soldier stationed at the site, opened fire on the group with an M-16 rifle. The perpetrator killed seven schoolgirls and wounded five others and a teacher before his rifle jammed and the Jordanian soldiers seized him.[1]
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The perpetrator was Jordanian Army Corporal Ahmed Daqamseh. The motive of the attack was not immediately apparent but Daqamseh later claimed that he attacked because the students had ridiculed him while he was praying.[10]
Speaking on Al Jazeera in May 2001, Daqamseh's mother said, "I am proud of my son, and I hold my head high. My son did a heroic deed and has pleased Allah and his own conscience. My son lifts my head and the head of the entire Arab and Islamic nation. I am proud of any Muslim who does what Ahmad did. I hope that I am not saying something wrong. When my son went to prison, they asked him: 'Ahmad, do you regret it?' He answered: 'I have no regrets.' He treated everyone to coffee, honored all the other prisoners, and said: The only thing that I am angry about is the gun, which did not work properly. Otherwise I would have killed all of the passengers on the bus."[11]
After Daqamseh was captured, the Jordanian army officially announced that Daqamseh was mentally ill.[12]
On March 16, 1997, A few days after the attack, King Hussein of Jordan personally apologized for the incident, travelling to Israel to visit and pay respects to the grieving families of the seven murdered girls during the traditional Jewish mourning ceremony known as shiva. King Hussein's visit to the parents of the victims was broadcast live in Israel and Jordan. During the visit, in which King Hussein stood alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he expressed an apology on behalf of the Kingdom of Jordan telling the parents, "Your daughter is like my daughter. Your loss is my loss."[13] He added that they were all "members of one family" and that the shooting was "a crime that is a shame for all of us... I feel as if I have lost a child of my own. If there is any purpose in life it will be to make sure that all the children no longer suffer the way our generation did."[14]
Afterwards King Hussein also visited the wounded schoolgirls in the hospital, and ordered to provide financial compensation to the families affected by the attack.
King Hussein's sincere act was an unusual act in the history of the Israeli-Arab conflict which deeply moved the mourning Israeli public and helped improve the relationship between the two countries after the attack. Nevertheless, various Jordanian individuals and groups criticized King Hussein's act for prostrating himself before Jews.[10]
While the majority of Jordanians disapproved of the attacks and expressed sympathy for the victims, Daqamseh became a hero to Jordanians who opposed normalization with Israel. Jordanian police prevented a pilgrimage to his house and 200 Jordanian lawyers competed to represent him.[10]
In July 1997, a five-member Jordanian military tribunal found Daqamseh guilty of killing the Israeli schoolgirls, sentencing him to life imprisonment at hard labor. Under Jordanian law, a life sentence is equivalent to 25 years in prison. He could have faced the death penalty but the tribunal spared him because he was determined to be mentally unstable.[15]
On February 14, 2011, Jordan’s new justice minister Hussein Mjali joined dozens of protesters in demanding the early release of Daqamseh.[2] Mjali, a long-time oppositionist, was appointed to the position as a result of the 2011 Jordanian protests, part of the larger 2010–2011 Arab world protests against the region's established regimes.[16]
Mjali previously served as the defense lawyer of Daqamseh in his 1997 trial. As an Arab nationalist opposed to the 1994 Israel–Jordan peace treaty, Mjali views Daqamseh as a hero who should not be in prison.[17] The Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that Mjali’s comments were received in Israel with "revulsion and shock." Israeli Embassy spokeswoman Merav Horsandi said it "is difficult for us to comprehend how there are people who support the release of a cold-blooded murderer of young children."[2]
To allay Israeli concerns and anger regarding a possible early release, Jordan's foreign ministry issued a statement reassuring that Daqamseh would serve out his life sentence and that Mjali had just expressed his personal opinion.[17]