ADL urges Jordan to allow entry to Jews carrying religious items

The Anti-Defamation League expressed concern Monday over recurrent reports of Jordanian authorities denying entry to Jewish tourists carrying religious items.

Tourists trying to enter Jordan from Israel have reported confiscations of religious objects essential to observant Jews, including prayer books, prayer shawls and phylacteries (tefillin).

"We fully appreciate Jordan's intentions to ensure that Israeli and Jewish tourists to the Kingdom are as secure as possible," the ADL said in a letter to Jordan's King Abdullah II.

"However, we continue to believe that measures can be undertaken that would respect the religious practices of Israeli and Jewish tourists, and permit them to enter Jordan with their ritual objects."

Jordan denied an Israeli citizen entry into the country in July after border guards noticed that the traveler was carrying a prayer shawl and phylacteries, Israel Radio reported at the time.

Upon his return home, the tourist sent a letter of protest to the Jordanian ambassador in Tel Aviv, who responded that security concerns required that travelers entering the Hashemite Kingdom not do so with prayer shawls and phylacteries.

In 2006, Jordan refused to allow a group of eight Israeli tourists from entering after an inspection at the border also revealed the same religious items.

Jordan is one of two Arab countries to have signed a peace treaty with Israel.