Gary Schwartz, 18, of Far Rockaway, N. Y., a scholarship student who boasts openly that he crossed into Jordan “to see what it looks like,” was returned to Israeli authorities today and was immediately held on charges of illegal crossing of the border.
Jordanian soldiers accompanied the youth to the Mandelbaum Gate. The youth, who had been in jail for three weeks, said he had been treated well, and was visited frequently by members of the American consulate. First he was held in the jail in the Old City in Jerusalem, then he was transferred to a prison in the Jordanian capital of Amman.
Schwartz did not seem sorry, nor the worse off, for his adventure. However, Israeli authorities do not treat his crossing as something amusing and are planning to file serious charges that would carry a heavy fine upon conviction.
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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.
