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Saturday, August 21, 2010
Jordanian travel agents offer cheap Jerusalem deal.

The forbidden city
By KSENIA SVETLOVA The Jerusalem Post 08/20/2010 17:00
www.jpost.com/LocalIsrael/InJerusalem/Article.aspx?id=185308

Jordanian travel agents offer cheap J'lem deals.

'Ramadan tours to Al-Quds: Make your pilgrimage to the holy mosques." "We
offer you a pilgrimage to the sites that were undertaken by Jesus, a trip to
the Holy Land, which is open to all citizens of the Kingdom."

Recently, the tourism market in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has become
swamped with deals for Jerusalem tours. There were ads in newspapers,
magazines and the Internet offering affordable three and four-day packages
to Jerusalem during Ramadan.

After all, the holy city with its sacred mosques and churches is only a
short ride away from Jordan's capital.

It takes about an hour and a half to drive from Amman to Jerusalem via the
Allenby Bridge (including inspection by the Border Police), which spells
easy and convenient tourism for Jordanian visitors.

To visit Israel from Jordan, you don't need to take a plane - a short bus
ride will do, which reduces the price of the tour considerably. The cost of
a three- or four-day package starts from $530, although one agency
advertised a three-day tour for $180.

Ibrahim Zumot, manager of the east Jerusalem based Overseas Travel Bureau,
says that the city has indeed witnessed an increase in Arab tourists from
Jordan and Egypt recently, due to the quiet maintained in the region. "The
region has been quiet for some time and nothing has happened, therefore the
tourists feel that it's OK to travel to Jerusalem," he explains.

However, the Jordanian tour operators who jumped at the opportunity to
corner the market soon discovered there was much more to Jerusalem tourism
than just booking buses and hotels. Influential Jordanian unions and
hard-liners believe that these tours are nothing more than a ploy designed
to circumvent a longstanding, unofficial boycott against Israel.

"Some travel agents exploit the religious feelings of our people, especially
in these days before Ramadan, and offer package deals to Jerusalem. A phone
call to one of these agencies confirmed that they cooperate with Israeli
companies. In order to get to Jerusalem, you need to receive a visa from the
Israeli Embassy," the Jordanian Web site egbid.com wrote.

Although the Hashemite Kingdom is officially connected to Israel through a
peace agreement signed in 1994, Jordanian unionists vehemently deny any
normalization of relations with the Jewish state and therefore view the
tours to Jerusalem as a form of recognition of Israel.

"Obtaining a visa from the Israeli Embassy is tantamount to a recognition of
the Zionist entity that bestows legality on the occupation of the holy
city," the president of the Trade Unions Council, Ahmad Armouti, said
during the last spate of protests. Last week, demonstrations were held in
front of the Jordanian Tourism Ministry, which allegedly supports the
tourist flow to Israel. The protesters, who belonged to the National
Committee for Resisting Normalization of Ties with Israel, carried signs
that called for a ban on all such trips, as they advocate normalization with
Israel. Some of the signs quoted the recent ruling of Sheikh Yusuf
al-Qaradawi, chairman of the International Union for Muslim Scholars and
spiritual father of the Al-Jazeera satellite channel, who issued a fatwa
condemning the calls to visit Al- Aksa Mosque and Jerusalem under
occupation.

"These trips will only legitimize the occupation in Al-Quds [Jerusalem],
which is the place of the first qibla [prayer direction] in Islam," Qaradawi
wrote in his ruling.

Those who condemn the tours and visits to Jerusalem also rely on an explicit
ban on visiting Jerusalem issued by Ibrahim Qaylani, the former minister of
the Wakf in Jordan, and Baba Shanouda III, the head of the Egyptian Copts.
Both men ruled that religious tourism to Jerusalem is a form of
normalization and that it will not serve the interests of the Palestinian
people.

"As long as there is occupation of Al-Quds, Muslims are not permitted to
visit the holy city," Ibrahim Qaylani wrote.

There are also calls to blacklist and boycott those who maintain relations
with Israel. Consequently, a lawyer who represents an Israeli firm might
lose his membership in the Lawyers' Union, an owner of an apartment might
receive threatening phone calls or emails, so the local newspapers were
cautious enough not to name the travel agency in question, probably so that
they would not be threatened afterwards.

OPPOSITION TO normalization of ties has been consistent in the Arab world
since 1967, which resulted in almost total isolation of Jerusalem and the
Arab population in Jerusalem from the larger Arab and Islamic contingent.
Even during the Jerusalem - Capital of Arab Culture 2009 event, the city
didn't experience any increase in visits from Arab countries, let alone
celebrity Arab singers and performers who were afraid of being accused of
normalizing ties with the Jewish state.

This approach comes in sharp contrast to the view of the Palestinian
Authority in Ramallah, in particular President Mahmoud Abbas, who said on
more than one occasion that a visit to Jerusalem is an expression of
solidarity "with the prisoner and not with the guard."

Referring to Qaradawi's ruling, Abbas said, "We serve the religion, we do
not use it. They, however, use the religion as they wish."

The Palestinian Authority did not respond to a request for comment by press
time.

Egyptian Minister of Religious Endowments Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq recently
supported the PA's approach, calling on a convergence on Jerusalem by
Muslims to strengthen the city's Islamic identity.

"I say to those who insist on not visiting [Jerusalem] before its
liberation: My worst fear is that you will have nothing to visit after
Israel realizes its plans in Jerusalem and elsewhere," he told the
London-based pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat.

In 2009 in Jordan, during another wave of interest in tours to Jerusalem,
the Palestinian mufti Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, who was probably trying to
placate the hard-liners in the Arab world, said, "When on tour, the pilgrims
only stay in east Jerusalem, and the State of Israel doesn't benefit from
them; therefore, these tours are not prohibited and only serve the interest
of the Palestinian people."

Judge Taysyr al-Tamimi added that "The visits to Jerusalem only support the
heroic people of Jerusalem, who are threatened by the occupation and are
subject to expulsion."

However, all this rhetoric fell on deaf ears. Despite the high status of
Jerusalem in Islam and despite the fact that there is hardly a Muslim or an
Arab who hasn't heard of Al-Aksa Mosque, the Arab and Muslim tourism to the
city remains limited. According to the Tourism Ministry, the record number
of Jordanian visitors to Israel was 16,807 persons in 2008. The following
year, only 15,821 Jordanians crossed the border.

Meanwhile, there has been a certain increase in Jordanian visitors since the
beginning of this year (7,847 persons from January to June). Naturally,
these figures could be substantially higher if there had been a consensus
regarding tourism to Jerusalem in Jordanian society.

ALTHOUGH WHAT is being done is allegedly meant to serve their interest,
Jerusalem Arabs feel more abandoned and hurt by these developments than
happy.

"Our economy really needs all the help and support we can get. Since
Jerusalem was cut off from its surroundings by the Israeli wall, our markets
are not as active as they used to be. I wish that all Arabs and Muslims
would come to visit here," says Muhammad Said, a vendor who sells nuts and
candy near Damascus Gate.

"I have heard of the anti-normalization movement, but they have to
understand that they are really boycotting us, their kinsmen, rather than
Israel. Israel doesn't care about these boycotts; the city is filled with
foreign tourists. We want our brothers from Jordan and Egypt and other
countries to come to visit us," says Intisar, a student at Al-Quds
University.

Travel agent Zumot says he has a hard time understanding what could be wrong
with religious tourism.

"The Christians perform pilgrimages in the footsteps of Christ, the Muslims
visit the holy mosques. What could be wrong with that?" he asks.

But for now, the majority of Arab tourists who face threats and intimidation
at home and the uncertainty of visiting a country that is regarded by most
as "the enemy state" choose to explore the holy city virtually, viewing
Al-Aksa and the Holy Sepulchre on Google Earth. Despite the geographic
proximity and the convenient means of transportation, the geopolitical gaps
are still difficult to overcome.

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