...born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad

Unwelcome company: I had a chance to visit Petra, Jordan, last year when I was in Israel, but declined to do so. My reasoning: even though Jordan made “peace” with us back in 1994, the Hashemite entity is officially Jundenrein; under the terms of Jordanian law, only one people are barred from ever becoming citizens—the Jews.

So, on principle, I saved my shekels and decided not to take in the glorious ruins. There are plenty of Jews, though, who don’t share my hesitations.YNet News reports on some of them—folks who went to visit Jordan, but who were told they could only get in if they left anything identifying them as a Jude behind:

Dozens of Israelis who have passed through the Arava border crossing during the last few days were given a choice, either turn over all items that carry Jewish symbols or be denied entry into Jordan.

The reason? According to the Jordanians it is nothing more than a security precaution.

"The Jewish symbols will make it easier on terrorist elements to identify Israelis" a Jordanian official explained.

For the past year the Jordanians have been meticulous when checking Israelis, especially orthodox Jews, who wish to enter Jordan. Last week authorities reiterated their advisory that "Jewish paraphernalia" that could risk the lives of the tourists, must be left at the border checkpoint.

'No anti-Semitic sentiment'

On Tuesday, for example, a group of 30 religious Israelis had to cancel their planned trip to Petra, after Jordanian authorities' confiscated their Jewish paraphernalia.

"The Jordanians confiscated everyone's prayer books and even seized one members' copy of a book by (Shmuel Yosef) Agnon", mentioned Trix Richter, a member of the group.

According to Richter, the Jordanians claimed that this was being done for security reasons. "It sounded a little far-fetched', said Richter, "I hate to think what would happen if the State of Israel would confiscate copies of the Koran from Muslim tourists or copies of the New Testament from Christian tourists; the rest of the world would be upset."

The foreign Ministry has confirmed that the Jordanians had in fact increased security regarding Jewish paraphernalia. "They claim that it has to do with security measures," a source inside the ministry said.

"They believe tourists we can be recognized as Jews would be easier target for terrorists," he said. We told them that it seemed a bit much, and that generally, Jews pray and put on tefillin in private, such as in a hotel room, but their concerns are about Jews praying in public and drawing attention to themselves."  

Following the increase in complaints both the Foreign Ministry and the Israeli embassy in Amman plan to appeal to the Jordanian authorities in order to ease the restrictions

"It must be understood that this decision stems from a genuine desire to keep the Israeli tourists safe", said a source in the ministry. "There is no anti-Semitic sentiment (behind the decision), just the desire to protect tourists the best that they can". 

Riiight. Memo to clueless Jews: Next time you have an itch to visit the Hashemite hot spots, stay home.

Posted by: scaramouche at 13:17 | link | comments

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