Tourism in the Middle East
eTN Inbox: Letter from Palestine
Dec 06, 2007Greetings from Palestine,
I have read the article "Tourism reaps benefits from Palestinian-Israeli cooperation" by Rachelle Kliger, published on eTurboNews on December 4th, and decided to write this response, hoping that you will publish it soon as a letter to the editor and make it available for the readers of eTurboNews.
In fact, when reading the above-mentioned article on tourism in Israel and Palestine, the reader doesn't get any sense of the reality and gets the feeling that there is real cooperation in tourism matters between both sides, for the benefit of everybody. For me, as someone who has been involved in tourism for the last 10 years, I hold that there is a real monopoly imposed by Israel on the tourism industry, to guarantee that the benefits of tourism will stay in Israel. As a matter of fact, if one analyses the recent history of Israeli policies on tourism to the Holy Land, it becomes clear that Israel has always been promoting a one-sided tourism, and this despite the fact that the Palestinian areas have sites of major biblical and historical importance. The reason why Bethlehem and Jericho are part of Israeli tourist programmes is that they are main promotional tools that are used by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism – but Palestine is not only Bethlehem and Jericho! Most of the Christian pilgrims would not accept visiting the Holy Land without going to Bethlehem (the birthplace of Jesus) and Jericho (the oldest city in the world). When Mr. Yanosh Damon says that "[most of the tourists prefer to stay in Jerusalem instead of in Bethlehem and we are directing our marketing effort for incoming tourists to spend nights in Jericho and Bethlehem", I find it very hard to believe him. Why??
The Israeli policy over the past 40 years has always focused on favouring tourist programmes and the development of tourism infrastructure in Israel only. In these 40 years, the orientation of travel agencies and the whole tourism business has not changed a lot. Most tourists/pilgrims do the same tours (“On the footsteps of Jesus”) while mainly using the Israeli infrastructure. Bethlehem was and is until now a short destination with maximum 3 hours visiting time. Tourists who come through Israeli travel agencies and stay overnight in Bethlehem only do so when hotels in Israel are overbooked, and not because of Israeli marketing efforts to promote Bethlehem. This also becomes apparent when considering how Israel stereotypes and brands the Palestinian areas as unsafe places!
In addition, Israeli restrictions and the harassment of tourists at the airport is a major proof that Israel is not interested in people visiting our areas. At the airport, the tourists are being interrogated on arrival whether they plan to visit and stay in Palestinian areas, and on departure they are asked about whether they have been to Palestinian areas during their stay in Israel. Take the example of how many groups have been denied entry to the country by Israel and were sent back to their home countries because they had planned to stay in Palestinian areas or to meet with Palestinians! All of this shows that the Israeli policies are trying to keep us isolated, both with regard to potential contact with tourists and to getting benefits from the tourism industry.
In the article, it is also mentioned that both Israeli and Palestinian hoteliers have the same problems and are equally affected by them - this is not an accurate statement! First of all, Israeli hotels were compensated by the state of Israel for their losses due to the violent events that started in the year 2000, while Palestinian hotels and the ones located in Jerusalem did not benefit from this compensation. Secondly, the Israeli army targeted many Palestinian hotels in different ways; in Bethlehem, the Paradise Hotel was occupied by the military and burnt, the Bethlehem Inn was occupied, devastated and plundered by the army, Inter-Continental Bethlehem was shot at and damaged, and the City Inn Hotel in Ramallah was targeted as well. All these events illustrate very clearly the Israeli policies on this subject!
But let us get back to the article published in eTurboNews. The language used in the article does not allow the reader to get an idea of the realities on the ground. The reader receives the impression that there are two states existing in harmony next to each other; two states who decided together to make border crossings more tourist friendly to improve their image for marketing purposes. In fact, what is mentioned in the article as a border crossing should be described as an Israeli military checkpoint, which disconnects the Palestinian towns from each other and controls the Palestinian residential areas. Language is important because it can clarify the political framework of a place and enhance the understanding of the situation by the reader.
In the end, we are all looking for peace, but a peace which is based on justice. We need peace not only to keep the tourism industry stable, but also to let the Palestinians live in dignity, freedom and sovereignty.
All the best,
Rami Kassis
Executive Director
Alternative Tourism Group
Palestine
Comments
What is all this talk of Palestine being "unsafe?" We walked around at night, caught shared taxis, went wherever we wanted whenever we wanted and did not have a hassle. It was, in fact, much much safer than our own home city of Melbourne, in Australia. This is just a misleading falsehood proagated by racist Israelis. Palestine is perfectly safe ; I will go there again next year, except this time through Jordan.
Dear Eturbo,
What is so shocking about David Beirman's reply to the very reasonable comments made by Rami Kassis, is not so much the unecessarily vitriolic tone, but rather the fact that he appears to have so little understanding of the almost universally-acknowledged facts of the Israeli Occupation and its implications for everyday life on the ground for ordinary Palestinians.
This is an occupation which has resulted in the quasi-incarceration and collective punishment of the entire Palestinian population for acts committed by a minority. Moreover, to eqaute Hamas merely with 'terror' both fails to comprehend the complexity of a movement which has grown in tandem with Israel's occupation (and abetted by Israeli governments) and excuses Israel's record of violence against Palestinians. Notwithstanding numerous Security Council resolutions condemning Israel's occupation, which has resulted in the uprooting of 180,000 olive and citrus trees, the demolition of 12,000 homes or more, the wanton destruction of Palestinian natural and cultural heritage (acknowledged by UNESCO), Israel continues to act with impunity against Palestinian civilians. More recently, the construction of the egregious separation wall, on the pretext of security, but which in fact extends deep into Palestinian territories, enclosing farm lands and seperating families and entire villages from each other, constitutes a breach of the 4th Geneva Convention and has been condemned by the International Court of Justice in 2004.
In terms of tourism it is relatively safe for foreign visitors to stay in Bethlehem - no more or no less than many other destinations one could name - and it is disingenuous of Beirman to suggest otherwise. The situation is not of course helped by the harassment at checkpoints, the almost complete closure of Palestinian hotels and associated businesses as a result of the occupation and indeed of former Palestinian hotels being taken over by the IDF again in the name of 'security'. What of Rachel's Tomb? The fortress-like blockade that now exists around it, cutting through Palestinian homes and farmland on either side, has nothing to do with security whatsoever but rather with the exclusion of all but a minority of religious Jews, many of whom do not enjoy the support of the wider Israeli public, armed to the teeth, from being able to visit the site.
Like all those blind to the crimes of the occupation and Israel's massive techno-military superiority vis-a-vis the Palestinians, Beirman reduces everything to the pathologies of "hate mongering ratbags" (who are only ever Palestinian mind) with not even a flicker of recognition of the huge injustices created by Israel's utter intransigence with regard to giving up the occupied territories, in particular its settler colonies, or removing the draconian restrictions on mobility which prevent ordinary Palestinians in Bethlehem from visiting friends and relatives in Jerusalem, a short bus journey away.
It is incumbent upon commentators like Beirman to report the situation that confronts Palestinians and in particular Palestinian tourism enterprises whose livelihoods have been massively compromised and in some cases destroyed by the Israeli occupation, in particular the last 7 years, with a degree of objectivity and humanity. To suggest that Rami Kassis and the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have suffered the indignities and hardships of occupation wish to "play it safe on your side of the fence" is an insult to their struggle and a gross misrepresentation of the current situation that confronts them.
Dr Raoul Bianchi
London
Rami Kassis typically does what most Palestinians do when being blind to the PA's internal problems - blame Israel.
Is it Israel's fault that the Palestinians voted for Hamas which began a reign of terror within the Palestinian population in 2006 and exacerbate an already frought Israeli-Palestinian conflict because of its overriding aim to wipe Israel off the map ?
Is it Israel's fault that Bethlehem which used to be a town with a Christian majority is now a town with a small Christian minority because Islamists made life intolerable for Christians ?
Is it Israel's fault that law and order in the PA areas is so lacking that almost every tourism generating country advises its citizens to avoid travel to the West Bank and Gaza ? is it any wonder that given an intelligent choice tourist, especcially religious pilgrims, even those with genuine sympathy for Palestinians will tahe a calculated risk to visit Bethlehem but would prefer to stay in Jerusalem ?
I had enough experience in dealing with Israeli/ Palestinian tourism to know that if Israeli-Palestinian relations were left to tourism professionals and not hate mongering ratbags posing as Islamic religious leaders the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict may have been solved years ago. The Peres foubdation and other Israeli organisations have worked hard to try and build real tourism bridges between Israeli and Plaestinian tourism and hotel professionals because we know that if The PA does real a real slice of the Israeli Plaestinian tourism pie thtis will service the intersets of peace but your only response is to blame Israel.
So Rami, play it safe on your side of the fence which regrettably was built to keep suicide bombers and other Palestinian ambassadors of ill will out of Israel. By all means keep blaming Israel as its the poiitcally correct thing to do in the shining Palestinian democratic paradise but don't kid yourself that any tourism profesional with a grain of intelligence will take you seriously.
David Beirman
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