Five American tourists, none of them Jewish, arrived here today after they and five others were arrested, released then re-arrested, and otherwise harassed by authorities in Jordan.
The story was told by the leader of the group, the Rev. R. E. Dawkins, of the Gospel Tabernacle, Kansas City, Mo. He said that his group of 10 Americans was detained as soon as the plane in which they had traveled touched at a Jordanian airport. The Americans were told, he said, that five of them were on a Jordanian blacklist.
All were jailed for three days, wives being separated from their husbands. The five on the blacklist were put on a plane for Beirut, Lebanon. The remaining five, including the minister, were told they could proceed to Israel, when they were re-arrested and, according to the clergymen, they were mistreated. Finally, they were allowed to go on to Israel through the Mandelbaum Gate.
Rev. Dawkins said the only guess he had for his harassment is because he edits a religious weekly called “B’nei Shalom.” He said his paper is pro-Israel but not pro-Zionist, and is not anti-Arab.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
