"Render to Caesar"

The Politics of Pilgrimage Tourism to the Holy Land.

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.

Volume 10, No. 1. (1998)

abstract

This article explores some of the ethical implications of promoting religious tourism to Israel and the Occupied Territories from the United Kingdom. It is based on a survey of 25 UK Tour Operators. It considers the ambiguities of language used in their brochures to describe locations visited; the content of planned itineraries offered and the kinds of places visited. The influence of the Israeli government Ministry of Tourism is also considered. Several Palestinian Tour Operators were also interviewed and their views contrasted with those of their UK counterparts.

key words

Tourism; Holy Land; Ethics; Pilgrimage; Propaganda; Apartheid

This article is based on extracts from original research exploring the influence of political considerations in tour operations to Israel over the past five years. The purpose of the survey has been to observe the attitudes of British Tour Operators on the Arab-Israeli issue and to determine the extent to which they perpetuate, exacerbate or ameliorate the conditions of the indigenous Palestinian population.

Of 35 British Tour Operators listed by the Israel Ministry of Tourism, 25 responded to a request for a brochure and sample of their itineraries. These were then analyzed noting the places visited and the assumptions that were implicit in the language used to describe the inhabitants and sites. A group of 14 employees working for 12 different Tour Operators, both British and Palestinians, were then interviewed. Their views were used to amplify and interpret the findings from the broader survey of Operator brochures and itineraries.

The Ambiguities of Language

All 25 British Tour Operators referred to the "Holy Land". Only 15 described the land as "Israel". None however alluded to the Occupied Territories or Palestine. To do so could, according to one Operator, "worry people...and make them unnecessarily fearful." Five Companies used maps showing the West Bank absorbed within Israel.

The decision on whether to refer to the land as "Israel" or not has been seen by some Operators as an issue of significant political and religious importance. It was for example, the policy of one particular company, not to use the name Israel in their brochure or publicity material. A former employee expressed the dilemma succinctly,

We were never to use the word Israel in our brochures and I've always stuck with that....We always use the word Holy Land. Palestine is equally emotive. Our people are not going there for political reasons, they're going to the holy places. The place has always been called the Holy Land and we try to keep to that.

It might be considered just as political however to avoid using the term "Palestine" as it is to use the term "Israel", especially when referring to places such as Bethlehem and Jericho in the West Bank.

Itineraries and Locations

A wide diversity of pilgrimage itineraries were offered by the 25 British Operators reflecting their political and religious agendas. Just under 200 separate locations and activities were offered. Of particular interest to this study were those which might be termed "extra-biblical", giving pilgrims an insight into Jewish and Arab history and culture. A total of 22 Operators offered 33 different locations of Jewish culture or tradition, 86 times. This means that were a pilgrim to visit the Holy Land with each Operator, he would visit 33 locations a total of 86 times, some only once, while others several times. In contrast only three Operators mentioned locations associated with Palestinian or Arab culture and tradition. These offered only three different locations a total of five times. The most frequently included locations were all Jewish sites (figure 1).

The most popular were Masada (24); the Wailing Wall (23); a visit to a Kibbutz (14); Yad Vashem (13); the Model of Jerusalem (11) and the Knesset (10). This would appear to confirm the claim made by the Pilgrimage Office at St George's that it is Israeli Ministry of Tourism strategy to ensure all tourists visit the three specific sites of Yad Vashem, the Wailing Wall and Masada to evoke sympathy for Israel and stifle criticism of her occupation of the West Bank.

Ethical Issues in Religious Tourism

It was admitted by several British Operators that the temptation was simply to,

...put the tourists or the pilgrims on a conveyor belt, X minutes to get from this site to that site, lunch here, next site, next site. Its much more complicated when you are trying to link people with people.

Some British Operators were very reluctant to recognise that their work had any ethical implications at all, other than that of "giving value for money". Several stressed that they did not want to appear "biased either way" on the Arab-Israeli issue. When it came to the choice of a guide they wanted someone who "can represent us in a good way and gives a balanced view of the land." In contrast, all the Palestinian Operators interviewed without exception gave explicit examples of profound and fundamental ethical issues they face on a daily basis which most of their British counterparts seem oblivious to. One British Operator in particular resented being asked questions he regarded as political. They implied, he argued,

....to a degree, that as an Operator, I should assume some political responsibility. This is difficult - people pay us money and we have to spend most of our time worrying about airline/hotel reservations etc.

The brochure of that same British Operator gave some evidence of their ethical approach. They were, they proudly claimed,

....recommended by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism...We use good quality Jewish hotels (and Kibbutzim), which, politics aside, are in nicer locations and therefore more expensive than Arab run hotels used by other Operators.

Although the approach of the majority of British Operators seems to be governed more by economic considerations than ethical constraints, following the occupation of the West Bank in 1967, the two main British Operators did take very different stances.

The first policy of ...15 years ago and prior to that, was that we were not allowed to use El Al. It was against Company policy to use El Al (Israel Airlines) because they were Israeli. We used British Airways exclusively and there were no charter flights at that time. The company we were competing with was Israeli owned and all their trade went to El Al. It was black and white.

The majority of British Operators seemed oblivious of the fact that unlike their Israeli counterparts, Palestinian agents, hoteliers and to a lesser extent restaurateurs depend totally on Christian pilgrims for their revenue.

Impact of Israeli Control of the Tourist Industry

Among the British Operators there was little awareness of the level of control the Israeli Ministry of Tourism exerted, apart from the decline in the number of Palestinian guides. In contrast, all six Palestinian Operators interviewed gave graphic examples of the ways in which the Israeli Ministry of Tourism controls the industry. The licensing and monitoring of guides is the most obvious means. It is exceedingly difficult for a Palestinian to obtain a license to guide. One Operator shared his own experience,

One time I was interested myself and everyone tells me "don't waste your time, they're just gonna take your money and you're gonna fail. I know of only about three or four East Jerusalem guides and....rumours always abound as to how you were able to get that licence, everybody knows that you don't readily get it. Sometimes it's a question of if you know somebody in authority..it's like when you come here with the mentality of the informant. They may not be, but they are treated like that.

Even those small diminishing number of Palestinians who have a license to guide are restricted in what they can say with regard to the present political situation. Those training as Guides at Bethlehem University will only receive a local guiding license for locations in Palestinian hands such as at Bethlehem and Jericho. The Israeli authorities will not allow such Guides to operate in Israel. They are very sensitive to the fact that, for example, while an Israeli guide might draw parallels at Yad Vashem between the Nazi Holocaust and the present threat to the State of Israel, for a Palestinian guide the temptation to compare the European holocaust with the Israeli treatment of Palestinians is strong although suicidal.

They're not allowed to, basically, go beyond the history and the Bible, into anything. I mean, except just to say that there was a 1967 or 1948 war and that's about it. They're really not supposed to talk. When a group is interested, and if the guide does feel safe, he might be willing to talk, but he'd be the judge.

The Ministry of Tourism takes steps to ensure only licensed and compliant guides are allowed to operate, and give what one British Operator called "sanitised tours". A representative at the Anglican Pilgrimage Office at St George's claimed that Israeli guides often use a variety of excuses to discourage pilgrims from visiting locations in East Jerusalem such as St. George's Cathedral, usually on the grounds that it would be dangerous to do so. The issue becomes much more serious however when a tourist or pilgrim, usually with Jewish connections, complains to the Ministry of Tourism about an incident, or a remark made by the guide or even by a Palestinian they were introduced to. As one Operator said, "It only takes one person to really give him a very, very hard time.". In one such incident which occurred in June 1993 a pilgrimage group visited the Bethlehem Arab Centre for Rehabilitation at Beit Jala, near Bethlehem. They were introduced to staff and patients including many Intifada victims. One of the pilgrims was so distressed to be told that a child patient had been shot by an Israeli soldier that she complained to the Ministry of Tourism about this "anti-Israeli propaganda". Subsequently, the guide and the Palestinian Tour Operator were severely reprimanded by the Israeli authorities. A license to guide or operate has been revoked for less. One Operator in particular was quite explicit,

I think they want an excuse to put us out of operation. To get a license you have to have a travel expert and in order to have a travel expert you have to have a minimum of five years experience, and then you have to go through a year's course, and then you have to go through a rigorous exam. From 1967 to 1983 they didn't even give an exam, for any East Jerusalem office...Then they made a concession, and they allowed one group to sit for this exam, from which only three passed of about twenty or thirty who sat for it. And, I mean, people are not that idiotic. And then they come and they say, O.K. you need to have like half a million dollars in a bank account, sitting as a guarantee, if you are going to be able to pay your debts. Then of course if you have half a million dollars, where did you get the half a million dollars...The next thing you are going to find yourself is in jail.

It is an often repeated fact that since 1967 no new tourist agencies have been allowed to open in East Jerusalem. By comparison, it is claimed that in West Jerusalem, several such Israeli run offices are opened virtually every month and that the authorities, in the eyes of the Palestinians, "are not as strict in applying the letter of the law as they are with us."

If you interview any hotelier in East Jerusalem, they will not get any planning permission to add any further bedrooms, to add an extra floor, to build a swimming pool, to upgrade their dining rooms etc, etc. Money is incredibly tight in East Jerusalem and the West Bank... The whole of the East side of Jerusalem is shrinking dramatically, especially in the Christian side.

At a more mundane level, even if pilgrims do decide to stay in Arab hotels in East Jerusalem, it is often difficult for them to get back from other locations in Israel or from West Jerusalem, especially when alone and at night. This is because Israeli drivers of yellow plated taxis are unwilling to take them back to their hotels despite the fact that it is supposed to be a united city. According to one Operator, it's all "a form of psychological warfare." Speaking of tourists generally, several Palestinian Operators recognized that,

The majority... they come and they go, with whatever preconceived notions they have. Very few modify, very few see and go on. It's a pity.

As the analysis of Tour Operators views and their brochures has shown, to a large extent this is a consequence of the kind of pilgrimage offered by Tour Operators; their failure to recognize the ethical issues inherent in their work and their apparent unwillingness to appreciate how they are manipulated by the Israeli political agenda and economic interests. It is not surprising therefore that the present policies of the British travel trade appears to be contributing to the imminent extinction of the Palestinian tourist economy.

Alternative Tourism Group