| 4 September 2010 |
| Holy Land pilgrims urged to show concern for Palestinians |
GENEVA (APEN) – An international consultation held here has called upon Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land to show concern for the Palestinian people who go through pain and suffering due to the Israeli occupation of their land.
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The consultation organized by the Alternative Tourism Group (ATG) in cooperation with the World Council of Churches’ Palestine-Israel Ecumenical Forum (WCC-PIEF), Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism (ECOT) and Kairos Palestine urged the pilgrims to demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinian Christians whose population is dwindling because the hardships they face due to Israeli occupation force them to look for better prospects in other countries.
“Justice tourism concentrates on political realities. Only by living what Palestinians experience all the time can a visitor recognize the injustices that are their daily bread,” said Rami Kassis, executive director of the ATG.
According to Kassis, Israeli-organized tours can contribute to the problem by ignoring the Palestinian people and their situation while Israeli interests are highlighted.
“They think they are bringing hope, but they are actually taking away hope from the whole region,” said Rifat Kassis, representing Kairos Palestine, a Christian Palestinian initiative modelled on the South African Kairos that gives theological grounding to recommendations for actions needed to achieve a just peace.
“There has always been a concern among Palestinians, shared by solidarity groups around the world, that the vast majority of pilgrims to the Holy Land go there and return with little reference to the Palestinian people,” Caesar D’Mello, director of ECOT told apenews.
He said that this was not surprising given that Israel controls almost all aspects of the pilgrimage, including visas, accommodation, arrangements, guides, and transport to the holy sites in Palestine, shutting out the Palestinians from activities and income in their own land.
ECOT has been playing a continuing role in exposing such a situation along with the Palestinian groups, Caesar said.
In a statement, the consultation said that “the monopoly held by Israeli travel sector and its state policies continues to cripple and hamper the growth of the Palestinian travel sector and its capacity to generate needed revenue for economic and social development. “
The consultation, third in a series of international meetings on “Pilgrimages for transformation,” urged the churches to “renounce and reject harmful Biblical interpretations and theologies which legitimize the occupation of Palestine and instead recognize God’s preferential option for the poor.”
Many Christian interpretations are oppressive, rather than liberating, and deny rather than support life, the consultation noted and added that “these contradict the basic Christian values of compassion, empathy, and the love of God for every person as well as forgoing the compelling Christian responsibility to work for justice and peace.”
It said: “Palestinians have experienced 62 years of dispossession and exile and 43 years of occupation,” which has “deprived them of human rights, reversed the progress of their economic development, and limited their access to education, health, free worship, and employment and isolated the Palestinians from each other.”
The consultation strongly recommended that pilgrims abide with the “Code of conduct for tourism in the Holy Land,” a document drawn up by a Palestinian network that gives guidance about trip preparation, behaviour, and follow-up actions.
The pilgrims should participate in a “purposeful and respectful journey with Palestinians through their land and history, taking sufficient time to listen, reflect and pray with them, discerning God’s presence in the Palestinian people’s struggle for justice,” it stated.
The 27 participants, comprising theologians, tourism activists, Palestinian Christian activists and tour organizers expressed grave concern about the monopoly that Israel exercised over the Holy Land tourism and the crippling restrictions it imposed on Palestinian tour operators, hotels, and guides that limited development of this key sector of the Palestinian economy.
According the statement, there are 400 Israeli military checkpoints in the West Bank, hindering Palestinians and their travel for work, school, family visits, and health care.
The consultation held from 18-21 May noted that the “Apartheid Wall” that slices through vast swathes of their land further cuts off Palestinians from each other and from East Jerusalem, the traditional centre of Palestinian religious, cultural, and commercial life.
Israeli authorities also block West Bank Palestinian Christians, whose families would normally celebrate Easter and other Christian feasts by worshipping in Jerusalem, from entering the city, which the consultation said as “unacceptable.”
The consultation urged Christians to work as “advocates for a just peace that will allow both Palestinians and Israelis to live together in peace and dignity,” and to work for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine in accordance with the UN resolutions.
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