A restaurant in Jordan is facing criticism after it unveiled its name, which comes from the date when Hamas launched a deadly surprise attack in southern Israel that killed 1,200 Israelis and took hundreds of Israelis hostage.
“October 7” Shawarma Restaurant Opens in Jordan #Hamas #Jordan pic.twitter.com/WFk8flHLMJ
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) January 25, 2024
The shawarma joint, named “October 7,” was opened in the Southern Mazar district, south of the city of Kerak near the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea, according to a video shared on social media by Dima Tahboub, a writer, political analyst, a former member of Jordan’s parliament, and a member of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, a conservative Islamist organization.
Tahboub has already been controversial for praising a Jordanian soldier who carried out the Island of Peace massacre in 1997, where seven Israeli schoolgirls were killed and six others were injured.
In the two-minute video shared by Tahboub, an unidentified man films “October 7,” packed with customers from the outside as well as its surroundings, then goes inside the eatery, where customers and employees with “October 7” uniforms greet him while he congratulates the staff on the new name.
It’s a crowd puller.
— Rock (@RockNRollGuys) January 25, 2024
Yair Lapid, the Opposition Leader in Israel’s Parliament, strongly condemned the restaurant’s name and demanded the Jordanian government to condemn it.
“The disgraceful glorification of October 7th has to stop. The incitement and hatred against Israel breeds the terrorism and extremism which led to the brutal massacre of October 7th,” Lapid said in a tweet. “We expect the Jordanian government to condemn this publicly and unequivocally.”
The Ynet news site reported on January 25th that it spoke with the restaurant’s owner over the phone, who said the name had been changed to just “October” and claimed the name was unrelated to Hamas’s attacks against Israel.
Hahahaha I love Jordan
— fukumean (@fcbbiggestfannn) January 25, 2024
“My daughter graduated from med school in Algeria on October 7,” the owner, who was not identified, was quoted as saying. “We changed it because it was understood as political. The new name is just October, without 7. We have no connection to politics.”
But Ynet also said the Facebook page of the eatery casts further doubt on the owner’s explanation, showing that it had already existed under a different name. When it asked its followers for suggestions for a new name, they accepted a recommendation from one commenter who suggested “October 7” as the new name for the restaurant.
October 7 was a good day
— Mike Elmi (@adamelmi1995) January 25, 2024
The backlash against the offensive naming of the restaurant, which seemingly celebrates Hamas’s brutal rampage on Israel on that day, comes at a time when Israeli-Jordanian relations are at their lowest point.
Jordan, whose population is believed to be at least 50% Palestinian, recalled its ambassador to Israel early in November after Israel launched its offensive against Hamas in Gaza. Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Al-Safadi asked its envoy Rasan al-Majali to return to Amman “as an expression of Jordan’s position of rejection and condemnation of the raging Israeli war on Gaza, which is killing innocent people and causing an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.”
Sick people
— Proud Bhartiya (@India_Dominion) January 25, 2024
Amman also asked Israel’s Foreign Ministry to tell its ambassador to Jordan, Rogel Rachman, who temporarily flew back to Israel due to security threats in Jordan, not to return to the country. Two weeks into the war, the Israeli government issued warnings against travel to Jordan and other nearby Arab countries.
Jordan became the second Arab state to make peace with Israel in 1994, after Egypt in 1979. However, thousands of protesters are demanding to rescind Amman’s peace treaty with Israel because of the war with Hamas.
