Israeli tourists were denied entry into Jordan on Tuesday after Jordanian guards at the border crossing found tefillin in their bags, local media reported.
About 40 Israeli insurance agents on their way to Jordan for a two week holiday were stopped at the border with Jordan near the southern Israeli city of Eilat.
The Jordanians, after discovering tefillin boxes in the luggage of seven Israeli travellers and informed them that they could not enter Jordan with the tefillin.
As per media reports, the Jordanians explained that this is a procedure designed to keep tourists safe.
The passengers were held at the border for an hour and a half. “We didn’t get answers, so we went back to Israel,” Israeli travellers told Channel 12.
The Foreign Ministry’s website reads, “The Jordanian authorities state that for security reasons they ask religious Israelis not to display the religious symbols: tallit, kippah, etc.”
The website further adds, it has often happened that items such as tallit and tefillin were not allowed in at the border crossing, and the traveler was asked to return to Israel or deposit his religious belongings at the border crossing, until the end of his visit to Jordan.
