Asheville Citizen-Times Dec. 25, 2003
Violence hurts Israeli, Palestinian economies
With the line of vehicles ahead of us promising a two-hour wait, my traveling companions and I gave up on entering the town of Bethlehem. We made a U-turn, intending to head back along a two-lane road armed with barbed wire, a more common sight on the landscape than trees.
But from 10 yards away, an Israeli soldier called out in the direction of our van, waving toward us with his gun as if the weapon were an extension of his arm.
Slow to notice that it was my camera upsetting him, I continued focusing on my viewfinder. That's when the soldier walked closer and aimed his gun within inches of my head. All at once everything became clear: I was going to die.
As I waited for my world to cut to black, another soldier explained in English that just the day before - at that very spot - a terrorist had shot and killed a fellow soldier and friend, leaving everyone on edge.
No more explanation was needed. A close-to-fatal lesson was learned.
Violent outbreaks do more than hurt people caught in the crossfire. Every time there are news reports of violence, the region's tourism-based economy suffers.
Both Israeli and Palestinian business sectors endure huge revenue losses.
"The image of the situation is very bad," Israeli Minister of Tourism Ari Marom said. "But since the end of the war in Iraq, we're beginning to see a turnaround. There are increasing numbers of visitors each month."
Before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, the percentage of Christian travelers had been greater than any other group, Marom said.
"This industry went from over 100,000 people directly employed in tourism to about 58,000 last year," he said. "That's a lot of families out of work and out of means of support. That crosses all lines - Jews, Christians and Muslims."
In the Palestinian controlled town of Bethlehem, a major stop on any Christian tour, industry woes are taking a heavy toll. Nearly three in five Palestinians now live on less than $2 a day. It takes $15 a day to maintain a reasonable standard of living.
Connecticut-born tour guide Gila Yudkin has been living in Israel since 1973 and guiding for 27 years.
"I am Jewish-Israeli," she said. "In the NearEast Tours Co., I have a Palestinian-Christian boss and we have Jews, Arabs, Christians and Muslims working together every day. Everyone respects everyone else.
"During this period of increased hostility in the country, we've all been personally affected one way or another. I've had only one group since 9/11. Economically, we all share the hurt."
The politics of economics
The year 2000 was the all-time peak year for travel from the United States to the Middle East, especially Israel. According to the Ministry of Tourism, there were 2.7 million foreign visitors in the first nine months of that year. The all-time low number of visitations was just fewer than 900,000 during 2002, the last year for which figures are complete.
Israel's reclaiming of the travel and tourism market is contingent upon perceptions of visitor safety as well as the local responses to some over-the-top safety measures.
For example, Israel says the barrier being built around the West Bank is an added security measure - not an attempt to further damage the Palestinian economy. To prevent infiltration by Palestinian militants intent on carrying out attacks, Israel already has spent $1.5 billion to build a 428-mile wall stretching north to south along the pre-1967 border between Israel and the West Bank.
Of the 105 Palestinians who succeeded in carrying out bombings over the past three years, about 40 came from the West Bank's largest city, Nablus. The barricade - blamed for some of the hostilities - is having its greatest impact on Qalqilya. The town is surrounded and cut off on three sides with access through a single checkpoint.
Thousands of Palestinians are being cut off from their farms, jobs and schools. The wall will enclose about 30 square miles of disputed territory. At least 11 Palestinian villages will end up on the Israeli side of the barrier, according to globalsecurity.org, a nonpartisan international policy-research group.
So far, Israel has built 93 miles of the barrier in the north. When finished, the barrier will cost an estimated $3.5 million per mile.
Edmond Shehadeh, administrator for the largest Christian hospital in the Middle East, the Christian Arab Rehabilitation Center, says the barrier has virtually prevented him from walking in his own back yard.
"Already for five years I have not put my foot in Jerusalem," he said. "When you go to my house, you see Jerusalem from my window. It's only 6 kilometers away.
"Coming from the villages around me, many people cannot come to my hospital. Many cannot even go to Hebron, which is a few kilometers from here, which is Palestinian. And when I leave the country, I must go through Jordan," Shehadeh said. "From here to Jordan is 70 kilometers. It takes almost eight to nine hours to cross and costs $200 to $300."
An elusive peace
Even with the barriers and armed checkpoints, dozens of terrorists have slipped through since 2000, killing nearly 900 people in bombings and shootings. Palestinians call the barricade "the apartheid wall." But that same barricade is being credited with saving lives in Israel and the territories.
In an incident during the Muslim Holy Month of Ramadan, at a checkpoint not far from Bethlehem, a Palestinian Arab who looked familiar to Israeli troops signaled that he wanted to stop and pray. The troops did not conduct the usual security search. The man knelt to the ground, spread out his prayer blanket, pulled out an AK-47 and shot two young men at point- blank range. The killer, an officer on the Palestinian Authority police force, got into his car and sped away.
But not all the checkpoint stops entail hair-raising confrontations, and there are signs that people are adjusting to a new normal - or simply unwilling to submit to pessimism. Moving through checkpoints can take up to two hours for motorists and pedestrians, according to the time of day and day of the week. On Sundays, for example, visitors to the holy sites in Bethlehem start out early to beat the rush, cutting as much as 90 minutes off the wait time.
On Dec. 7, Tony Boyadjian, an Armenian tour guide, met up with old friends and colleagues at the border crossing. With 30 years of guiding experience to his credit, he said people are beginning to come from all over Europe.
"There is no better time to come than at this time," he says. "First to encourage us Christians and secondly, the holy sites are empty, and groups can move about very easily. You can see for yourself it's safe - this is not propaganda," Boyadjian said.
Contact Logan at 232-6015 or RLogan@CITIZEN-TIMES.com.
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CUTline:
Israeli soldiers try to reduce hardships on people detained at checkpoints. But the hardships on the soldiers themselves cannot be understated. Two years of military service is mandatory. Most of the trainees, male and female, are 18 to 21 years old. They are given a gun and a catalog of orders that change at a dizzying pace. They are told that the safety of their country is in their hands.
At Bethlehem's exit checkpoint, soldiers examine the passengers' travel papers in the vehicle ahead - while another soldier monitors with suspicion the person with the camera pointed toward them.
CUTline: Traveling with his church group, Morris Bowser of Philadelphia, Penn., says he did not let news reports keep him from making his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. "I knew that there would be some tension here among the local people, but you find that everywhere and in every country. Just as I thought, the people here are friendly and this has been much more than a learning experience. It's been a real eye-opening mission."
