Tourists taken, tourists missed

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Earlier I have written about how land and water is being taken from Palestinians. During the last two weeks I have traveled through Israel and the Palestinian territories together with friends and family of Gjermund, and it seems to me that another resource, namely the tourists, is also to a large extent being controlled by Israel.

An example of this is to be found just outside Beit Sahour, the Herodium mountain. Constructed as a fortress and a palace by king Herod the Great, the site is now controlled by Israeli authorities, as it lies in area C. A poster at the entrance promised that the "Israeli nature and historical heritage" was in the best hands. The man who collected the fee was an Israeli, and it is hard to believe that any Palestinian will ever see that money.


The Israeli flag at Herodium, tied up that day because of the wind. Thank you to Gjermund, who has taken the photos in this post.

Further to the east the Jordan valley and the land west of the Dead Sea, except for Jericho, is under complete Israeli control (see this article by the Israeli human rights group BTselem to learn more about what this means for the Palestinians who are living there). A good proportion of the Dead Sea shore is within Israel. This apparently isn't enough. On the West Bank side, there are Israeli-run tourist resorts waving the Israeli flag, settlements and a factory producing cosmetic products for Ahava, using stolen minerals from the Dead Sea. Palestinians who want to be tourists in their own land, on the other hand, can have a difficult time getting to the Dead Sea, according to this article in the Independent.

Occupation seems to be good business.

Not for the Palestinians, though. While tourists are crowding the shores of the Dead Sea and streaming to Jerusalem and the many churches around the Sea of Galilee, there are strangely few visitors at many holy sites in the West Bank. One of them is Jacob's Well in Nablus, where Jesus sat down to talk to the Samaritan woman. The well is still there inside a beautiful church full of icons and chandeliers. When we visited the place this week, Gjermund, his parents and I were the only people there.


In the church of Jacob's well.

People don't come to the place where Jesus was baptized, which is inside the West Bank. Instead they come to Yardenit, a place on the Israeli side of the Jordan river bank. The center is run by a kibbutz and in the year 2000 they received a million visitors.


People being baptized at Yardenit.

Bethlehem and Beit Sahour have many tourists. But most of them only stay for a few hours, leaving little income for people here. Driving through the checkpoint in their bus, they don't see the long rows of Palestinians waiting to cross or Israeli soldiers with machine guns. Lately it has also become more difficult for tourist to travel to and from the West Bank on their own. Foreigners are not allowed to take the 21-bus driving through a checkpoint to get from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, they are only allowed to go via the big Gilo checkpoint, where you never know whether crossing will take ten minutes, one hour or two (which is why I have to leave home 7.10 on Sunday mornings in order to get to church).

I don't know enough about tourism to explain thoroughly why most pilgrims only see Israel or what they think is Israel when they come to the Holy Land. I'm sure it's not fair to blame Israel alone.

But I think the occupation is part of the explanation, though, realities like how Nablus and Jacob's well is surrounded by seven checkpoints, and how Israel controls the border and does not allow Palestinians to have their own airport, let alone move freely in their own land.
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