Occupied Jerusalem- Tourism is considered one of the basic pillars of the economy in the occupied city of Jerusalem, and the religious part of it has revitalized the city over the decades, but with the fluctuation and deterioration of the security situation on many occasions, this sector is exposed to repeated setbacks that have had and continue to have disastrous repercussions on all specializations related to tourism.
On the occasion of International Tourism Day, which was approved by the World Tourism Organization of the United Nations General Assembly in 1979, and September 27 was chosen to celebrate this occasion annually, Tel Aviv Tribune Net went to the head of the Jerusalem Tourism Association, Raed Saadeh, to open the city’s tourism file.
Under the slogan “Tourism and Peace,” World Tourism Day 2024 highlights the vital role of this sector in promoting peace and understanding between nations and cultures and in supporting reconciliation processes, according to the United Nations website.
The following is the text of the dialogue with the head of the assembly:
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First, to what extent is tourism considered a fundamental pillar of the economy in occupied Jerusalem?
Tourism is certainly a fundamental pillar of the city’s economy, based on its tangible and intangible cultural heritage, and the religious symbolism on which tourism has relied since ancient times.
Jerusalem tells the tourist a historical civilizational story rich in cultures, religions and ethnicities. Therefore, Jerusalemites invested in this sector automatically, but they focused on the religious aspect and did not invest in cultural tourism, which is considered another treasure parallel to religious tourism.
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What did tourism in Jerusalem depend on in the past? In addition to the fact that the city is attractive, were handicrafts, for example, an attractive factor for domestic and foreign tourism, and what are those crafts?
Jerusalem was famous for its 13 handicrafts, but it emerged because people needed it and not because the city relied on tourism.
The craftsmen produced the tools needed in the homes of Jerusalemites, such as copper, carpets, glass, leather, Arabic brushes, soap, etc., and Palestinians would come to the city from other governorates to buy these handmade products.
But with the change in market requirements, the craftsmen were forced to change their specializations, and then they began importing ready-made goods, and thus the crafts disappeared, because competition in the market was limited to prices and not to the advantage that the product enjoys, which is that it was made in Jerusalem and by Palestinian hands.
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To what extent has the tourism movement encouraged Jerusalemites to invest in building hotels, facilities, and restaurants in the city?
There is no doubt that people tried to invest and build hotels, but after the 1967 war in which Israel occupied East Jerusalem, only one new hotel was built, which was the “Al Dar” Hotel.
Israel did not allow urban expansion in Jerusalem, and confiscated a lot of land, and what remained of it was difficult for Al-Maqdisi to prove ownership of, because it was not registered in the land registry (tapu).
If Al-Maqdisi proves his right to ownership, he will find it difficult to obtain a license to build a hotel, then the costs of this license, and later the construction costs.
Consequently, the capacity of Jerusalem hotels decreased by more than half after the Naksa War, as we had 4,000 hotel rooms distributed among about 40 hotels, and today we have only 1,200 rooms distributed among 24 hotels, and this number does not include tourist lodges affiliated with churches.
In contrast to this modest number, Israeli hotels in the eastern and western parts of the city include 9,000 rooms distributed among dozens of hotels, even though their number did not exceed a thousand rooms before 1967.
The number of restaurants also decreased in the vicinity of the Old City after Israel allowed Jerusalemites to invest and build in the outskirts of the city, and they fled the arbitrary measures in addition to the tourist setbacks that always afflicted Old City and its surroundings.
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Let us focus more on this pivotal year…if we compare tourism in Jerusalem before and after 1967?
The hotels did not close their doors soon after the end of the war, but they were closed due to the cumulative and direct losses resulting from a group of Israeli measures. For example, there are no parking lots for vehicles in Jerusalem, and buses carrying tourists are not allowed to stop in front of hotels to drop off visitors to the city and their bags, and anyone who does so is in violation.
Not only that, but every war that broke out, such as the first and second Gulf War, the wars on Lebanon and Gaza, the first and second intifadas, the popular uprisings in Jerusalem, the Corona pandemic, and the current war, all of this has killed tourism.
As for the year 2000, it was pivotal because Ariel Sharon’s storming of Al-Aqsa coincided with a set of Israeli practices that were followed in the city after the Oslo Accords, such as separating the West Bank from Jerusalem, and later building the separation wall, encircling the city, and cutting off internal tourism to it.
I remember in the past that the people of the West Bank used to hold their weddings in Jerusalem, and the city was also thriving with what is called conference and meeting tourism coming from the West Bank as well, but all of that was interrupted by the military checkpoints and the separation wall.
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How have you been and are still dealing with all these challenges and setbacks?
The setbacks planted the seed for the need to think about changing the nature of tourism and the need to think about preserving the Palestinian cultural heritage and the Palestinian identity without tourism being about providing services only without a certain depth.
We felt the need for tourism in Jerusalem to have a deeper role by focusing on competitiveness because the city of Jerusalem is unparalleled in the entire world.
If it were not for Islamic tourism, which developed after the year 2000, there would now be only 5 hotels remaining in Jerusalem, but we must develop cultural tourism to expand the possibilities of local tourism to every Palestinian who has access.
We want everyone to get to know Jerusalem in a deeper way: the buildings, the views, the gastronomy, the cultural centres, the theater and the landmarks. Fortunately, our city is rich in all of that.
We must invest and transform some areas into attractive tourist areas, such as Souk al-Qattanin, for example, which is considered one of the corridors leading to Al-Aqsa Mosque, and we must take advantage of the spaces available to us, whether those belonging to schools, monasteries, or mosques.
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What hinders achieving this?
The Palestinian inability to think unitedly and in a specific direction, and what contributes to the dispersion of this is the nature of funding because the institutions that invest in cultural heritage and youth are non-profitable, and depend on funding only, and this makes the institutions revolve around themselves without progress.
Everyone has programs and activities and implements them constantly, but how much have we been able to take Jerusalem forward through these programs since 1990 until now? Indeed, we have witnessed a decline in some areas, and therefore there must be coordination between institutions.
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Is this one of the reasons that prompted you to establish the Jerusalem Tourism Group?
True, we began thinking about establishing it in 2005 and we wanted it to include all institutions that intersect with tourism, including cultural, religious, and other institutions. However, some people felt that the cluster would compete with their presence, and therefore we backed down and decided that the tourism cluster would invest in the tangible and intangible cultural heritage through the foundations of community tourism. We said that tourism does not belong to tourists, but rather to the entire community.
Through this saying, we began to invest and work with different groups, and this idea spread to some institutions that began to invest in this aspect.
Our main problem is funding, because we cannot continue to achieve strategic goals if there is no continuous funding, and as soon as any war breaks out, the funding allocated for development is immediately transferred to relief, and thus the boat is swaying, some are falling from it and others are floundering… and this is the case with tourism.
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You also face the dilemma of implanting the distorted Israeli narrative in the minds of tourists about places in Jerusalem. How do you confront that?
We are weak in the face of this narrative for several reasons, the first of which is that there is no funding, organization, or umbrella for us. We tried to have an umbrella for the tourism sector and register it in Israeli law to protect the program, but the Israelis refused and considered this umbrella to be an arm of the Palestinian Authority in the city.
Another problem we face is that by simply typing Al-Aqsa Mosque in any search engine on the Internet, we may find 20 Israeli websites that talk about the aesthetics of the place and its history from an Israeli perspective, and in return we find 10 Palestinian or Arab websites that list news of settlers’ storming of the mosque and the problems that accompany their storming, and thus the picture. What we export to the world is often negative, while Israeli sites include attractive information.
Intrusions, problems, and challenges are important, but communicating attractive historical information at a certain stage is also important, and they should not be confused.
In Jerusalem, we receive tourists who fall under the umbrella of political or solidarity tourism. They want to see the settlements, the separation wall, the camps, and the military checkpoints, but the average tourist does not want to see all of that. Rather, he wants to hear about history and civilization, see the aesthetics, and above all, feel safe.
We want to introduce tourists to our culture, the art of our food, our stories, the stories of our ancestors, and the creativity of our children, but all of this requires concerted efforts, funding, and passing on the treasures of Jerusalem to the emerging generation through specific programs in schools.
The Israeli presence is an occupying presence, and the goal of the narrative is to pass and distribute certain ideas and messages through tourist guides. We are unable to change this narrative directly, but we take tourists to the headquarters of the African community in the Old City, for example, and we ask the members of the community to talk about reality and we let them pass on what they want. .
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On World Tourism Day, how can this sector be promoted in the Holy City?
The matter requires real and serious coordination efforts, and these efforts must be supported by decision-makers, especially those related to financing. Without that, we will remain in a vortex of distraction, the results of which will be clear from the 1990s until today, and all our efforts will have a slow effect.
To succeed, we must work together and look for events that attract the people of the city themselves, such as the event of lighting the Ramadan lantern in the Old City every year, and lighting the Christmas tree, in addition to investing in tourist destinations, either attractive markets, streets with landmarks, empty spaces, and ancient homes, and the launch of these events and activities coincides. With strong marketing after research and tight passing of the narrative.