JERUSALEM — Holy Land residents are hoping for a quiet — though not too quiet — Easter week.
“We’re praying that there will be many pilgrims but no attacks,” says Atalla, the proprietor of Salem Souvenirs, one of dozens of souvenir shops that line the Via Dolorosa, or Way of the Cross, the path many believe Jesus walked from the Court of Judgment to Golgotha, the site of the crucifixion.
Peering through his shop’s narrow doorway at the nearly empty pedestrian square beyond, Atalla, who declined to provide his last name, explains why optimism is in short supply these days, even with Easter right around the corner.
“We live day-to-day. The political situation being what it is, we don’t know what will be in a half-hour. We’re not expecting to see so many tourists for Easter,” the Christian merchant says with a deep, weary sigh.
When reminded that the number of tourists to Israel has increased substantially during the past several months, the 65-year-old Jerusalem native waves his hand dismissively.
“Business is down 95 percent since the start of the intifada,” he says of the Palestinian uprising, which began in September 2000. “There are Israeli incursions and bus bombings. Even troubles in Iraq affect us. The tourism business is sensitive. It’s like fine crystal. One small knock can shatter it.”
Things weren’t always this precarious. Millennium excitement capped off by Pope John Paul II’s historic visit to the Holy Land in 2000 prompted more than 2 million Christians to visit their faith's birthplace that year. Tour buses crowded church parking lots and pilgrims overwhelmed the souvenir shops.
Since the start of the uprising, however, only the adventurous have traveled to the Holy Land, the majority of them on organized pilgrimages.
“Those who come tend not to be the big spenders,” laments Ibrahim Zaarour, whose souvenir store adjoins Atalla’s, next to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. “Inshalla (God willing), things will improve during Easter.”
Privately, tourism professionals express the hope that the runaway success of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” which vividly depicts Jesus’ final, agonizing march toward crucifixion, will motivate Christian believers to visit the Holy Land.
Without specifically mentioning the film or the interest it has generated among Christians around the world, Raphael Ben-Hur, deputy general director of Israel’s tourism ministry, happily notes that Easter bookings are up 30 percent over the same period last year.
“And we’re not talking only about evangelical Christians, who have stood by Israel throughout the intifada,” Ben-Hur says. “We’re talking about people from all denominations.”
If the current pace of tourism continues, Ben-Hur says, 2 million tourists will visit Israel by the end of the year, compared to only 1million in 2003. In 2000, a record 2.6 million visitors were recorded.
Despite the continued violence between Israelis and Palestinians — a wave that is only expected to worsen following Israel’s March 22 assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin — Ben-Hur predicts that Bethlehem, in the West Bank, will remain open to visitors.
In the past, when fighting raged in the Bethlehem area, the Israeli Army sometimes prevented civilians from passing through the Jerusalem-Bethlehem checkpoint and visiting the Church of the Nativity in Manger Square.
“Currently there is no security reason to prevent tourists from crossing the border,” Ben-Hur says. “In fact, we are encouraging groups to go to Bethlehem. But of course the army has the final say,” he adds after a pause.
Regardless of the degree of enmity between Israelis and Palestinians, officials from both sides have made a point of cooperating during Easter and Christmas to ensure that all pilgrims who wish to visit the holy sites can cross the checkpoint in a safe and efficient manner.
The Palestinians, even more than the Israelis, need tourists to keep their battered economy afloat. Hundreds of families in the Bethlehem region, most of them formally employed in tourism-related businesses, have emigrated, and the exodus continues. Today, nearly all of Bethlehem’s hotels are shuttered, as are a great many of the stores that hugged Manger Square and the town’s picturesque side streets.
Things are somewhat better in Jerusalem, which is part of the larger Israeli economy. During Holy Week, church officials expect between 50,000 and 70,000 pilgrims to converge on the ancient Old City of Jerusalem, the site of the Via Dolorosa. Because the route is so sacred to so many denominations of believers, the various churches carefully coordinate their respective processions through the Stations of the Cross.
Shmuel Ben-Ruby, a spokesman for the Jerusalem District Police, said the police intend to beef up already-heightened security during Easter not only to thwart terrorist attacks but to keep order among different groups of Christians.
“Sometimes the young people in the communities fight over who has jurisdiction in the church,” Ben-Ruby says, referring to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, whose eclectic interior is divided up between the various churches.
Those adventurous enough to celebrate a Holy Land Easter should expect to have their purses and other bags frequently searched by security guards. Those wishing to enter the Western Wall Plaza or Temple Mount, both in the Old City, will need to pass through metal detectors.
Despite the relatively small number of pilgrims expected, visitors should anticipate delays on the Way of the Cross, and particularly when entering the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
Since the denominations alternate their times in the church, those not on a guided tour are advised to procure a schedule of prayer times and events from the Tourism Office at Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport or at any local church.
Pilgrims who have made the journey say the joy of being where Jesus lived outweighs the small inconveniences.
“It’s so emotionally powerful to stand right where he stood over 2,000 years ago,” says Christine Prince, an evangelical Christian shopping for scarves in a little store on Christian Quarter Road, a few hundred feet from the Via Dolorosa.
Prince, a Livermore, CO, native on her first-ever visit to the Holy Land, admits that friends and family back home worried about her safety.
“People say, ‘Aren't you afraid?’ But honestly, it’s as safe, safer, than walking down any street in the United States.”
Carole Anderson, Prince’s tour operator and a co-director of Hearts for Israel Tours, concurs. “I’ve never felt safer,” Anderson says with a broad, confident smile. “Between the Israeli security and the power of the Lord, we are in good hands.” |
