A new restaurant named “October 7,” an apparent nod to the Hamas atrocities committed in Israel, opened in the Jordanian town of Kerak near the Dead Sea.
“7th of October Restaurant has been opened in Al-Mazar Al-Janoubi,” former Jordanian parliamentarian Dima Tahboub wrote on X above a two-minute video that has since gone viral showing customers lining up to order.
The restaurant was renovated and renamed to commemorate the Hamas terror attack that left over 1,000 Israelis dead, according to Al Arabia, an Arabic news network.
Contacted by the Israeli news outlet Ynet, the owner insisted that the store’s name had been truncated to “October” and that the original name was unrelated to Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel in early October.
“My daughter graduated from med school in Algeria on October 7,” the restauranteur told the website. “We changed it because it was understood as political. The new name is just October, without 7. We have no connection to politics.”
However, activity on the store’s Facebook page cast doubt on the owner’s explanation. Ynet examined the page and found commenters suggesting it be renamed “October 7” after the owner polled followers on a new name.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid demanded national leaders condemn the glorification of terrorism.
“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,” the centrist leader of Yesh Atid wrote on social-media. “We expect the Jordanian government to condemn this publicly and unequivocally.”
Jordan was the second Arab nation to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1994; however, many view bilateral relations as a “cold peace” upheld against the wishes of the former’s citizens. In November, Jordan recalled its ambassador to the Jewish State “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.”
About half of Jordan’s population is Palestinian.