Dubai-based rabbi has tefillin straps cut by Jordanian airport security

On Monday, Moshe Haliwa, a UK-born rabbi who leads a small community in the UAE, was on his way home to Dubai through the Queen Alia International Airport when he was stopped by security. His tefillin were obtained and then the leather straps were cut off with scissors.

“The security guard opened my bag and saw my two pairs of tefillin,” Haliwa told The Jerusalem Post. “I explained what they were, a religious artifact, but they didn’t speak English very well. I explained that it is all made of leather.” The security guard called some colleagues.

“They claimed they never saw something like this, Haliwa said. “I felt as though I was their entertainment.”

After they asked how it was used, Haliwa wrapped the tefillin around his arm and put the second box on his head. “I put them in front of them. The senior official came and said ‘you can’t take this with you.’”

Haliwa shared with the Post that since he isn’t Israeli, but British, “I’m polite and didn’t want to create drama.”

“I explained to them, ‘we’re cousins; we all pray to Allah.’ But the head of security said that the straps or the ‘ropes’ are dangerous and that I should put them in my suitcase.” Haliwa was traveling only with hand luggage.

“I was crying and upset. I said at one point if it’s a danger, let’s cut the straps off and I’ll take the boxes, but he wouldn’t hear of it.”

The police were called eventually, but since Haliwa didn’t want to go to a Jordanian jail, he walked off into the Duty-Free area – without his tefillin.

The outcome of the incident

Since he had a few hours to spare, he identified a woman from airport security who connected him with the manager of the airport police. “They are more sympathetic here,” he said of the security guards he met later on.

He showed them what tefillin is on Google. “ I said it's leather and parchment of Torah, just like the Koran. They reassured me that they would do everything they can.”

Yet the compromise was that he could take the boxes of tefillin without the leather straps. “They took scissors and cut it all off,” he said. “I thought of [Nazis] cutting beards and side locks. At least they gave me back the [parchment] boxes themselves.”