Jordanian security inspection officials cut off the leather straps of a Rav’s tefillin at the Queen Alia International Airport in Amman on Monday.
HaRav Moshe Haliva, the Rav of the Sephardi kehilla in Dubai, flew from Israel to Abu Dhabi via Amman. When Rav Haliva went through security in Amman, security officials confiscated his tefillin, and after an hour and a half of arguments, and despite the Rav’s pleas that it was a religious object, they cut the tefillin straps in front of him and returned the batim to him.
“I cried, I begged,” Rav Haliva told Ynet. “I explained to them that it’s a holy object, I told them that we’re cousins, that we also daven to Allah. I told them that there’s no metal inside, they could check in the machine – that there’s writing from the Torah inside like your Quran.”
“They told me that if the tefillin were in my suitcase it would have been all right but it’s forbidden for me to take it in my hand luggage inside the airplane because it’s dangerous. One of them gestured with his hand that I can choke someone [with the straps].”
“I told them that I fly all over the world and there are thousands of Jews that fly around the world and they never used this holy object to choke someone. I explained that the tefillin are very costly. I told them I would send the tefillin back to Tel Aviv – but nothing helped.”
“There were six officials surrounding me. They requested that I show them how to use the tefillin and I put them on in front of them. They were curious but in the end, they demanded that I move on and leave the tefillin behind. Again, I begged and cried. They then cut the straps and gave me the batim.”
The security officials threatened to call the police if Rav Haliwa continued to protest. “It was appalling,” Rav Haliwa said. “It reminded me of scenes from the 1930s when they cut Jews’ payos off. I was humiliated but I didn’t want them to call the police. The incident felt very antisemitic.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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8 Responses
1) Firstly no-one should be traveling to Jordan nor Dubai.
2) Secondly, for such a wicked filthy act on part of Jordan, they ought to have their Al-Aqsa Mosque also desecrated.
3) Israel security are just as paranoid & crazed against religious objects, being that if you travel from Israel with a Challo Board & its accompanying knife, they also confiscate it away from you, even-though everyone knows this is a religious object for a Shabbos table.
Did they offer to check them in? Did you beg and cry to have them checked in?
Terrible, but what can you expect when you are in Jordan? Do you think they will be nice to a clearly visible Jew?
The government of Israel must protest. I don’t believe that those security agents don’t know what a pair of tefilin are. Anyways we should take the lesson not to travel trough any muslim country
I imagine Jordan doesn’t allow anyone to wear a belt on an airplane?? Can certainly choke with that too 🤔
“they ought to have their Al-Aqsa Mosque also desecrated”
,
Right… while desecrating Al Aqsa, perhaps also nuke Amman airport and burn a few Qurans. Indeed, declare war on Jordan because of the ignorance of a few minimum wage airport security screeners.
“Indeed, declare war on Jordan because of the ignorance of a few minimum wage airport security screeners”.
We will have “a few minimum wage security workers” desecrate Al Aqsa…
147, this man is the Rav of the Sefardi kehilla in Dubai. Should he not have accepted the position according to your judgmental response? Jordan was a stopover – the destination was Israel (or the reverse on the way home). It’s pretty safe to assume that if he had an available direct flight, he’d have taken it. If you judge others favorably, Hashem will judge you that way, too. If you are critical, then…
askan4trouble, they did tell him to check them in but he answered that he came only with hand luggage.
Uncle Mo: Even more than belts, what about all the Arabs on the plane with ropes around their kaffiyehs? A whole lot easier to choke someone with a rope than with leather tefillin straps! But then again, Arabs are so peace-loving, they’d NEVER choke anyone, so there must be a dispensation in place for them.