Jordanian authorities have prevented relatives of the Palestinian man who carried out the gun attack on a religious school in Jerusalem on Thursday from erecting a tent in Amman for receiving condolences, officials said Saturday. ( dpa )
The gunman was shot dead after he killed eight students at the Mercaz Ha'Rav yeshiva in West Jerusalem. Ten other Israelis were injured in the shooting spree.
"Security men arrived at the site and ordered us to remove the tent which we had erected for receiving well-wishers for the martyr," an uncle of the attacker, Alaa Abu Dhaim, was quoted by Jordan's largest political party, the Islamic Action Front (IAF) as saying.
IAF Secretary General Zaki Bani Ershaid strongly criticized the decision by the Amman governor Saad al-Wadi to prevent the condolence presenting party.
"The decision provides a precedent in encroaching on public freedoms, because it has no legal backing and has been taken against a political background," Bani Ershaid said.
The Jordanian government has condemned the Jerusalem shooting and Israeli operations in which Palestinian civilians have been killed.