Storm in a coffee-cup: Israeli president's brew stirs outrage

A picture of former Israeli President Shimon Peres holding a cup of Arabic coffee, presented to him in Jordan by an elderly man wearing a traditional headdress, has created a social media storm in the Arab world.

Peres is currently in Jordan to take part in a regional event coming as part of the Davos 2015 World Economic Forum.

Twitter users used the #Peres_Coffee hashtag to pour scorn on the photo. One tweeted: "It's so shameful of this man in the Arab headdress to bow his head to give coffee to a man who robbed us of our land."

Musab Al-Ashqar (@musab_ashqar) tweeted: "Peres' coffee is the blood of those who died for our dignity. This act of stooping will be followed by others, even if Peres has enough."

Arab hospitality is famed throughout the world, and is often thought to stem from the welcome given to, and by, travelling Bedouins upon their arrival at the end of a long and arduous journey.

But such hospitality appears not to be universal.

Al-Othmani (@mazahran09) tweeted: "Too much hospitality brings villainous guests. Not welcome here."

Batoul (@ketabate14) wrote: "Have we really started to give away all our rights? Today they are guests and we're honouring them. Tomorrow they'll be our torturers and they'll expel us from our land. We long for the days of strength and victory."

Derar Tarshihi (@Derar76) tweeted: "I can stand anything except the sight of an old man bowing to present coffee to this despicable Zionist criminal, and those who are even more despicable than him defending this scene."

This is an edited translation from our Arabic edition.