Amman – Jordanian Police Threaten To Arrest Haredi Pilgrims At Aaron’s Kever For Praying

Amman – Jordanian police have reportedly confiscated prayer shawls and tefillin from a group of some 20 haredi men who traveled to the country on Sunday to visit the grave site of the biblical figure of Aaron.

This latest incident comes following the stabbing of an Israeli embassy security guard in Amman, who shot his assailant and another man at the scene.

Members of the group of haredi travelers told Walla News that Jordanian police had arrived at the hotel they were staying at close to Petra and searched their rooms for religious items, confiscating several sets of tefillin and prayer shawls from some members of the group.

Some of the group subsequently returned to Israel in the early hours of the morning, while others visited the site of Aaron’s burial regardless of the tensions and even managed to pray there with one set of tefillin and several prayer shawls that were not discovered by the Jordanian police.

The men have been in touch with the Foreign Ministry and the Israeli consul in Jordan who told them to keep a low profile and return to Israel as quickly as possible.

Efforts to help the group have been hampered by the severe tensions regarding the stabbing and shooting incident in Amman on Sunday, and the difficult situation at the Israeli embassy itself.

Rabbi Menashe Zlikah, a member of the group, told Kol Hai radio station that he Jordanian Police had forbidden them from praying anywhere in Jordan, including the hotel, and told them that anyone who prayed would be arrested.

He said however that they had managed to smuggle the tefillin into the site of Aaron’s Tomb and that they managed to perform the Priestly Blessing there as well.

The anniversary of Aaron’s death is the First of the Hebrew month of Av, which fell on Sunday and was the reason the group traveled to the site, leaving before the incident in Amman took place.