Deputy mayors to visit Petra have been detained after demanding removal of tassels • Deputy head of Samaria Council: "Anti-Semitism scandal" • Foreign Ministry launched investigation into the incident

• Deputies are detained on the Jordan border // Photo: Davidi Ben Zion

A serious incident occurred this morning (Tuesday) at the Israeli-Jordan border. City deputies attending the conference in Eilat wanted to visit Jordan, but their entry was prevented because some, religious and ultra-Orthodox, were wearing tassels.

Around 7:30 PM, the deputies, including many religious and ultra-Orthodox, reached the border with Jordan. Earlier, it was agreed with them that they would wear a hat instead of a dome, for security reasons, but when they crossed the Israeli border and reached the Jordanian side, an unpleasant surprise awaited them, to say the least - the security guards refused to bring them in because some wore a tassel under their clothes.

Photo: Moshik Goldstein, Lieutenant General of Givatayim

"We were told in advance to put a hat on instead of a kippah, but no one talked to us about Tzitzit," Israel Today told Davidi Ben-Zion, deputy head of the Samaria Regional Council. "Take us all back. We checked again and banned us from entering. There were those who lowered tassels and those who did not take down, and now, for more than two hours, the group has been detained by the Jordanians."

"At the first inspection, our religious members asked to remove caps and replace the hats," said Moshik Goldstein, deputy mayor of Givatayim. "When we finished checking back all of us because they realized that some of the religious were wearing tassels, they brought the whole group back for another check. The women who wore wigs or hats took it aside and undressed."

Photo: Moshik Goldstein, Deputy Mayor of Givatayim

Waiting at the border // Photo: Davidi Ben Zion

"After the second inspection, they did not like anything again and asked to bring the whole group back for a third inspection. Our guide updated that they contacted Amman for approval and he must sign that we are going to Petra and nothing. No perversions left and right and no external religious markers are missing. "And the harsh feelings of the religious members have spoiled our atmosphere. We decided to signal a protest to return to Eilat."

In the documentation released from the serious incident, tassels were placed on the floor after being lowered. Because the city's deputies refuse to lower the tassels, a question is puzzling in light of the fact that it was a garment that was worn under the shirt and which did not look external, the Jordanians delayed the whole group. "There are Arab deputies here, from Abu Ghosh and other cities."

"The feeling is of abuse, an attempt to harass us and prevent it from coming in. A very anti-Semitic feeling, because all the other groups pass from the side - groups of Ukrainians and Koreans who came in without examination. Only us stopped without explanation." More than a hundred people have been detained and detained. Some have decided to forgo the visit in light of the severe incident. Goldstein noted that the first to join the return to Israel was the deputy prime minister of Givatayim, Orly Niv and her partner Michal, as a signal of identification with the humiliation of the religious public on the tour.

"The word tassit was not mentioned in advance. It was agreed not to put a cap but a hat, which can be explained for security reasons, but there is no reason to lower the tassel. There is great rage and a sense of terrible humiliation, a real national humiliation. The secular guys too, especially they are "Understand that it is forbidden to go over the agenda. There is a lot of anger here," adds Ben-Zion.

"They say that there is peace with Jordan, so they say. No longer knows a country in the world that humiliates Jews for their Jewishness and the state of Israel is silent. "I have nothing but to guess what a glorious apology the Israeli Foreign Ministry would have put out to the media if an Arab had been asked to leave as a baker or a Christian to leave a cross at the entrance to Israel," he concluded the grave incident.

The Foreign Ministry said in response: The issue is under review.