Fifty Israeli tour guides and drivers were allowed to guide tourists in Bethlehem and Jericho for the first time since 2000, in a joint Tourism Ministry and Civil Administration pilot project that has been deemed a success. Civil Administration Head Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai informed Tourism Ministry Director-General Rafael Ben-Hur that, following an assessment by Central Command and the Civil Administration, he has agreed to expand the pilot project to include 100 tour guides and 100 drivers.

The project, which involved 50 Jewish and Druze Israeli tour guides and drivers, was launched in June. The Tourism Ministry’s initiative followed many requests from tourism industry professionals and from tourists to allow the professional guides who accompany groups during their visits to Israel to continue guiding them on their visits to Bethlehem, a must-go spot for Christian tourists.

Following the Tourism Ministry’s request, the Civil Administration issued clear regulations in early January 2010 for Israeli tour guides and drivers entering Bethlehem. About 500 tour guides and drivers asked to participate in the pilot project.

Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov praised the tour guides and the cooperation with the Palestinian Authority: “I see great importance in the guided tours in Bethlehem which will facilitate an increase in the scope of the tour guides’ work, allow for top-level tours for tourists, an increase in cooperation with the Palestinian Authority and, of no less importance, an improvement in the international image of Israel and the Holy Land as a safe destination for tourists.”

In the last two years, cooperation between the Tourism Ministry and the tourism entities in the Palestinian Authority has been strengthened and joint activities to promote tourism have generated over a million visitors and tourists to Bethlehem in 2008 and more than 1.3 million visitors in 2009.

Christian Pilgrimage Baptism in Israel: A call by environmentalists to halt the use of a Christian pilgrimage site due to pollution in the Jordan River may leave Christians with one less special place to visit for a while.

The July 22 call came from an environmental group called “Friends of the Earth”, who called to put a halt the baptisms which take place in Qasr al-Yahud, a site located a few miles from the point where the Jordan River spills into the Dead Sea.

The site is the place where Christian tradition says that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and draws over 100,000 tourists each year who wish to undergo a baptism in the same spot that tradition holds that Jesus did.

The environmentalist group Friends of the Earth halted baptisms at the site due to raw sewage leaking into the water near the PA-controlled city of Jericho, which has caused high levels of harmful bacteria in the water. Pollution from Palestinian Authority towns is ruining natural areas in the Binyamin region. PA pollution is an issue even in areas under full Israeli control (Area C).

A similar complaint has been filed about raw sewage from Arab villages spilling over into Wadi Kelt in the Judean Desert: Wadi Kelt, a valley that runs from Judea to the Dead Sea, and specifically between Kfar Adumim and Jericho. The National Infrastructure Minister toured the Binyamin region stating that Israel should consider ceasing the flow of water to the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority if it does not stop contaminating the water with sewage.

Residents of the PA town of Anata near Jerusalem dump their trash in a pond that is known to be filled with sewage, council members explained. When too much garbage is thrown into the pond, it overflows, leading the sewage to flow into nearby natural streams, among them Wadi Kelt. The PA apparently does nothing to enforce proper disposal of trash in the area, according to their testimony. They called on Israeli authorities to get involved in order to prevent serious damage to the Jerusalem aquifer.

A recent report by the Ministry of Health stated that there is a higher than permitted level of harmful bacteria at the site and it is considering placing signs forbidding entering the water at the site. Drought has caused the Jordan to have less of a flow and when the waters pass PA controlled Jericho, they fill with raw sewage which seems to have caused most of the pollution.

This led to concerns over the safety of continued baptisms at the site, resulting in the call to halt them. The area is now considered a closed military zone and any visitors who wish to enter it are required to coordinate their visit with the IDF.
With the latest reports on the safety of the water, Israel is redoubling efforts to restore Qasr al-Yahud. The Health and Tourism Ministries are currently working together, along with the Nature and Parks Authority, in order to examine the makeup of the water and find ways to improve its quality. In the interim, the Health Ministry has requested that the Jewish National Fund and Tourism Ministry direct pilgrims to points farther north on the river, where water quality is better.

Israel has already stepped up to the challenge and is working to ensure that Christians can continue to visit one of their holiest sites without risking their health. Since 2007, Israel has invested approximately $2 million in developing the site, including making it wheelchair accessible and allowing for shade.

A warning for an apocalyptic situation could result from the next earthquake to hit Israel in which millions of apartments and thousands of public buildings could collapse. According to the ACBI, a strong earthquake could lead to tens of thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of homeless. Earthquakes have occurred in Israel on the average of once every 80 years in recent centuries.

In addition to the major Biblical earthquakes, two major earthquakes occurred in Israel during the last two centuries. The first earthquake, in January 1837, killed some 5,000 people, destroyed the city of Tzfat and damaged nearby Arab villages, while the second one, in July 1927, killed over 500 people, and caused heavy damage in Jericho, Shechem (Nablus), Jerusalem and Hevron. An earthquake centered in Lebanon was felt in Israel and Syria.