Jordan bars Israeli family because they were wearing kippot

Jordanian border authorities prevented an Israeli family from crossing into their territory on Wednesday because the husband and sons were wearing kippot, according to the wife.

Tamar Gvirtz-Hayardeni said she, her husband and their three children were trying to cross the Israel-Jordan border at Eilat for a short trip when they were detained and finally prevented from entry completely because the males in her family were wearing traditional Jewish headgear.

At one point, she said, one of the Jordanian officials took their kippot away from them without explanation.

Despite clarifying to border guards that they did not intend to wear the kippot once they had crossed the border, they were told that it was not permitted to enter Jordan with “Jewish items.”

“The Jordanians may want Israelis, but they don’t want Jews,” Gvirtz-Hayardeni wrote in a Facebook post.

A Channel 2 report Thursday said another Israeli Jew, traveling with his tefillin, was also turned away at the border crossing.

Gvirtz-Hayardeni said she was told by her Jordanian tour guide that “he had heard about something like this once before, when some ultra-Orthodox were given a hard time. But that’s it. And even they were allowed to enter.”

In the end the family chose to give up on Jordan and vacation in Eilat. “The children said they were not interested; they felt that they were not wanted in Jordan as Jews, which is in fact what we all felt. That was the key point in this whole story,” she said.

Israeli deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely reportedly sought clarification from the Jordanian authorities. The Foreign Ministry said there was no justification for the treatment the family received.

Contacted by The Times of Israel, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry on Thursday night refused to comment on the incident.