Jordan turns in border-crossing Jewish family to Israeli authorities


23-05-2013 04:05 PM

Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Jordanian authorities on Thursday returned an ultra-orthdox Jewish family that had crossed the border into Jordan Wednesday night back to Israeli authorities, following their attempt to enter Jordan reportedly to travel to Canada to join a Quebec-based "Lev Tahor" extremist Jewish cult.

The haredi family, consisting of parents and six children, crossed the border into Jordan Wednesday night and was detained by Jordanian authorities. Israeli media reported that the family was questioned and detained by Eilat police following their turn over by Jordanian authorities.

According to Israeli Channel 10, the ultra-Orthodox couple and their children reportedly tried to circumvent court order forbidding them to leave the country. Earlier media reports had speculated that the family accidentally wandered across the border while hiking.

The Beit Shemesh family, it emerged, was on its way to Canada, where the parents, with their six children, planned to join fellow members of an extremist cult based in a small town in Quebec, the Times of Israel reported.

The cult, Lev Tahor (Pure Heart) numbers around 250 people, including 100 children. It is led by Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans, a 50-year-old Israeli, who according to reports uses extreme violence and mind-control methods to manipulate his followers, the Israeli report added.

The family members were placed under arrest upon arrival in Jordan and were returned to Israel following contact between the IDF and Foreign Ministry and the Jordanian authorities.

The Jordanian authorities did not comment on the incident, despite repeated attempts by Ammon News staff to contact them.

Later on Thursday evening, an official source at the Jordan Armed Forces said that Jordanian border guards in Wadi Araba border crossing, north of Aqaba, arrested an Israeli family Wednesday night.

The source did not elaborate on the reasons the family crossed the border, noting only that the family consists of parents and six children, who were turned over to Israeli authorities on Thursday.




  • no comments

Notice
All comments are reviewed and posted only if approved.
Ammon News reserves the right to delete any comment at any time, and for any reason, and will not publish any comment containing offense or deviating from the subject at hand, or to include the names of any personalities or to stir up sectarian, sectarian or racial strife, hoping to adhere to a high level of the comments as they express The extent of the progress and culture of Ammon News' visitors, noting that the comments are expressed only by the owners.
name : *
email
show email
comment : *
Verification code : Refresh
write code :