A new restaurant that sells shawarma and pizza named “October 7” opened this week in the city of Al-Mazar Al-Janubi in the Karak governorate in Jordan. MEMRI [Middle East Media Research Institute] translated a video of the restaurant’s opening, in which a man is heard excitedly welcoming customers. The video shows that not only does the restaurant bear the name “October 7” but the date is also emblazoned on the employees’ uniforms. According to media reports in the country, the restaurant’s name is “an expression of appreciation of the Palestinian goals.” Ynet reported that the restaurant owner published a post on Facebook asking people to suggest a name and promised a gold ring to whoever proposed the winning name. One of the names that was suggested was October 7. The Karak governorate was recently in the news for another anti-Israel incident – a father called his newborn son Mohammed Deif in honor of the Hamas leader. The restaurant’s name is another sign of the deteriorating relations between Israel and Jordan since the October 7th massacre. Over a thousand people were tortured, maimed, and brutally murdered on that day but Jordan, a country that maintains a peace treaty with Israel, seems to believe it is a day to glorify and celebrate. Following the Hamas assault on Israel and the start of the war in Gaza, Israel’s Ambassador in Amman, Rogel Rachman, was called back to Israel due to fears for his safety. Israel issued a traveling to Jordan and other Arab countries. At the beginning of November, Jordan recalled its ambassador to Israel in protest of the war in Gaza and asked Israel not to return Rachman to Amman. In an interview with CNN after the Hamas massacre, Queen Rania of Jordan claimed that there was “no evidence” that Hamas terrorists beheaded children and babies in Israel and expressed her pain over the suffering of Gazan children due to Israel’s “unjustified” war on Gaza. The “October 7” restaurant is not the first one to gain notoriety [or fame] due to its antisemitic penchants. In November, Gosta Coffee of Jordan launched a new product called the Holo-Gosta coffee [a combination of the word Holocaust and its name], which features burning Magen Dovid marshmallows on top. 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. We expect the Jordanian government to condemn this publicly and unequivocaly https://t.co/KwyeqHAiXO — יאיר לפיד – Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) January 25, 2024 (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)