An Israeli family found out the hard way that the peace treaty between Jordan and the Jewish State is an agreement that focuses primarily on the military, security, scientific and business arenas.
It is not necessarily a treaty that ensures the kind of peace that once was enjoyed between Israel and Turkey, a nation which still boasts one of the highest import figures in Israel, and which used to be one of the favorite tourism destinations for Israelis on vacation — or which still exists between Israel and Tunisia — where the ancient synagogue on the island of Djerba attracts Jews around the world to arrive on pilgrimage each year for the holiday of Lag B’Omer — and which to this day continues to host to one of the oldest Jewish communities remaining in the Arab world.
During this year’s Chanukah holiday, a young Jewish family arrived at the Israeli-Jordanian border to enter the Hashemite kingdom for their vacation.
At the border crossing, they were greeted by a Jordanian soldier who promptly removed the yarmulkas from the heads of the father and son. The family was then left standing at the border, bewildered, for the next two hours and then ordered to go back to Israel “in order to be rid of the yarmulkas.”
Israel’s foreign ministry said it would address the issue with Jordanian authorities.
In the introduction to the Jordanian version of the Treaty of Peace between The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and The State of Israel, the document states, “Jordanian and Israeli negotiators have signed a series of protocols establishing a mutually beneficial framework of relations in fields such as trade, transportation, tourism, communications, energy, culture, science, navigation, the environment, health and agriculture, as well as cooperatory agreements for the Jordan Valley and the Aqaba-Eilat region.”