Allenby Bridge on Jordan-Israel border (archive photo)
Photo: Zoom 77
Haredi journalists detained in Jordan
‘In the Community’ weekly’s editor, reporter and photographer arrested by Jordanian troops after entering closed military zone, head back to Israel after several hours of questioning. ‘The soldiers pointed their rifles at us and ordered us to stop; it was very frightening,’ editor says
Three haredi journalists were arrested in Jordan after mistakenly entering a closed military zone.
The reporters, of the haredi weekly “Bakehilah (In the Community),” who arrived in the Hashemite Kingdom last week in the framework of a special Passover project, were apprehended by local army forces after entering a restricted area near Mafraq.
The weekly’s editor, Yitzhak Horowitz, along with reporter Sarah Gottleib and photographer Ezra Landau were questioned for a few hours and then began heading toward the border with Israel.
“A military jeep suddenly passed our car, and armored vehicles also appeared,” Horowitz told Ynet upon his return to Israel. “The Jordanian soldiers pointed their rifles at us and ordered us to stop; it was very frightening.
“I can understand the Jordanians; three people – one Israeli citizen and two foreign nationals – snooping around their territory with cameras. We understood their suspiciousness,” he said.
Haifa's rabbi asked not to make the trip
The soldiers led the journalists to a nearby base, from which they were later transferred to police custody and questioned once again.
The journalists’ cameras and film were confiscated, but the cameras were later returned to them.
Horowitz said the three did not want to involve the Israeli embassy in Amman so as not to cause a ‘diplomatic incident.’
Haifa chief Rabbi Shear Yeshuv Cohen was initially scheduled to make the trip to Jordan with the journalists, but was asked by the Jordanian embassy to cancel his plans so as not to attract ‘unnecessary attention” to the group.
