The Ethical Challenges of Managing Pilgrimages to the Holy Land
Christian Resource Exhibition : Sandown Park : 19th May 2000

1. Introduction
Israel and the Occupied Territories comprise a unique location, born out of the ravages of war and the Holocaust, it's 20,000 square miles of territory claimed by two peoples, the Jews and Palestinians, its holy sites shared uneasily by three religions, Jewish, Moslem and Christian, often in close proximity as at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem or the Tomb of the Patriarchs at Hebron. According to Barbara Tuchman, "more blood has been shed for Palestine than for any other spot on earth" (1957:viii). To Protestant England it was as Lord Curzon eulogised, "the holiest space of ground on the face of the globe," not only the land of the Scriptures and of the Crusades, but also the land "to which all our faces are turned when we are finally laid in our graves in the churchyard" (Tuchman, 1957:viii). It is the geographical junction between East and West, the bridgehead between three continents, and throughout history the focal point in the military strategies of succeeding empires. Few countries attract so much media coverage, or arouse such intense religious feeling and political controversy.

The pilgrimage and tourist industry, which brings just under two million people from around the world to the Holy Land every year, is both a microcosm and perpetuator of these tensions and divisions. In 1994 there were 300,800 visitors from Britain of whom approximately 20% were pilgrims. In the period January-June 1996 there were 109,638 visitors from the UK (Israel Government Tourist Office, 1995, 1996). Sadly, the indigenous Church is largely ignored by the many thousands of Christian pilgrimage groups whose itineraries involve visiting a predictable succession of archaeological sites and Christian shrines, which vary only according to the denomination of the group and number of days present in the land. That so many Western Christians visit the Holy Land and yet have little or no contact with the indigenous Christian community, is a serious ethical issue with important theological implications not only for the unity and vitality of the church, but also for its very survival in Israel and the Occupied Territories.

2. The Detrimental Impact of Religious Tourism to Israel and Palestine

Many Western pilgrims appear not only ignorant of recent Middle East history but surprised to find an Arab Christian presence at all. Even where Christian visitors are aware of this fact, their behaviour obliterates it. Worshipping with their own priest or minister in a closed chapel, shrine or even hotel, their pilgrimage would be no different if the oldest Christian communities in the world had been obliterated long ago (Macpherson, 1993).

The ethical issues involved in promoting pilgrimages to the Holy Land and their impact on the Palestinian Christian community are therefore considerable (Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland (CCBI) 1992: 2-3). Typical Western perceptions of Orientals still appear to be based on 19th Century colonial stereotypes, formed at a time when Europe controlled 85% of the world (Eber, 1993:2-3). These are further reinforced and exploited by contemporary Zionist propaganda (Said, 1978:166). The Palestinians, whether Moslem or Christian are often branded as terrorists because of their support for violent as well as non-violent opposition to continued Israeli settlement of the Occupied Territories.

Western Christians have for a variety of reasons tended to show greater sympathy for the state of Israel than for the condition of the Palestinian people. At the same time, during the cold war and subsequently, American and British foreign policy have consistently viewed Israel as an important ally in the Middle East. With the demise of Soviet Communism, the new enemy for both right wing religious Fundamentalists and politicians alike is militant Islam. These perceptions inevitably exacerbate the vulnerability of Palestinian Christians, since they are a minority among Moslem Arabs as well as among the Jews within a Zionist state. For Moslem Fundamentalists who equate "Arabism" with Islam, Palestinian Christians are an anomaly, guilty by association with European imperialism dating back to the Crusades (Armstrong, 1988).

Contemporary pilgrimage research reveals that in this Century there has been a gradual decline in the level of contact between pilgrim parties and Palestinian Christians (Ekin, 1990:25). This has in part been due to tighter control of the pilgrimage industry by the Israeli Government Ministry of Tourism, especially since 1967, when the main sites of biblical significance were appropriated by Israel from Jordan, along with the registration of Palestinian guides, hotels and travel agencies (Bowman, 1992a:121-134).

This problem is compounded by semantics and propaganda. Is the "Holy Land" Palestine or Israel, and if Israel, which Israel? Neutrality is a rare luxury, and difficult to sustain, linguistically or ethically, given the Palestinian's demand for justice and Israel's need for security, more so since language is both a subtle indicator of presuppositions and a powerful tool of propaganda.

3. Types of Protestant Pilgrimage

Within the very broad diversity of Christian tradition, three particular types of Protestant pilgrimage may be discerned (figure 1).

 

Types of Pilgrimage Emphasis of the Tour Effect on Indigenous Church
Evangelical Biblical Sites of the Past Indifference and ignorance
Fundamentalist Eschatological Signs of the Future Antipathy and antagonism
Living Stones Human Significance in the Present Empathy and solidarity

Figure 1. Types of Protestant Christian Pilgrimage to the Holy Land


Evangelicals go essentially to visit the sites of biblical significance on what are primarily educational tours. These in themselves will only perpetuate and reinforce a pietistic faith rooted in the 1st Century, without addressing either the present Middle East conflict or necessarily engaging in theological praxis. The presence of an ancient and Oriental Christianity is either ignored, misunderstood or even criticised for desecrating the archaeological sites with what are often regarded as pagan shrines.

Fundamentalist pilgrims visit the Holy Land for similar reasons but with the added eschatological dimension, believing themselves to be witnessing and indeed participating in the purposes of God, at work within Israel in these 'Last Days'. They believe they have a divine mandate to support the state of Israel.

The third, most recent and smallest category of pilgrimage to emerge is associated with the term 'Living Stones'. These pilgrimages in contradistinction seek to counter the ignorance of many Evangelicals and the harm caused by Fundamentalists, by engaging in acts of solidarity with the Palestinian church. These pilgrimages include opportunities to meet, worship with, listen to and learn from the spirituality and experience of the indigenous Christians.

4. Categories of Holy Land Tour Operator

Four categories of Pilgrimage Tour Operator emerge: First, a small number of secular companies offer what are really religious tourist package holidays; second, the majority of companies offer biblical-educational tours; third, a small but influential group of Zionist or Israeli owned companies concentrate on the Jewish dimension to the Christian faith; and fourth, only a handful of Operators actively encourage contact with the Palestinian church. In terms of comparative influence, if the first group are benign, and the second blind, the third appear bigoted, and only the fourth offer any genuine dialogue or intercourse between pilgrims and Palestinian Christians (Figure 2). Based on a series of interviews, the majority of Operators appear ignorant of the ethical issues implicit in their business; fail to recognise how they are manipulated by the Israeli authorities; or see how detrimental their trade is to the indigenous Christian community. Based on this evidence it is not surprising that so few pilgrimage groups ever meet with Palestinians.

 
Types of Tour Operator Nature of Tour Offered Effect on Indigenous

Christians

Secular Specialist Package Holiday Irrelevant
Christian Biblical Archaeology & Sites Experience Ignored
Israeli or Zionist Bible from Jewish Perspective PerspectivePerspectiveDimension Antagonistic
Living Stones Encountering the People PeopleEncouraging Contact Encouragement

Figure 2. Categories of Holy Land Tour Operators

 

5. Consequences for the Indigenous Palestinians
The consequences of the ignorance or indifference of British Christians and Tour Operators results in significant detrimental effects felt by Palestinians living in the Holy Land and especially the Christian minority (Figure 3).

The Deleterious Consequences Experienced by Palestinians

These cumulative consequences have led to a seriously diminished Christian presence that now threatens their very survival in the Holy Land.


6. Deficiencies Inherent in Most Protestant Pilgrimages

The deficiencies inherent in the majority of Protestant pilgrimages undertaken to the Holy Land appear essentially threefold (Figure 4).

Major Deficiencies Inherent in the Majority of Western Pilgrimages
For pilgrimage groups and organisers, to continue to ignore the presence of a local Christian community, is a perversion of what pilgrimage could and should be about. The lack of contact between Christians perpetuates ignorance and complacency for pilgrims and injustice and despair for Palestinians. It is ultimately to treat the Holy Land as nothing more than an entertaining religious theme park, and will only hasten the day when Palestinian Christians become extinct in the Holy Land, their heritage forgotten and their churches turned into museums.

The litmus test for distinguishing between different kinds of pilgrimages and religious tourism is, it is suggested, the attitude of the organisers and participants toward the presence of an indigenous Christian Church. Are they visible or invisible? Are they respected or repudiated? Visited or ignored?

Local Christians are caught in a degree of museumization. They are aware of tourists who come in great volume from the West to savour holy places but who are, for the most part, blithely disinterested in the people who indwell them. The pain of the indifference is not eased insofar as the same tourism is subtly manipulated to make the case for the entire legitimacy of the statehood that regulates it. (Cragg, 1992:28)

Probably as many as 95% of Christian pilgrimage groups visiting the Holy Land have a detrimental affect on the indigenous Christian community (figure 5).

Figure 5. The Cumulative Effect of Traditional Pilgrimages

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. The Ethical Issues Encountered in Promoting Responsible Tourism to the Holy Land

The ethical issues and decisions encountered in promoting responsible tourism to the Holy Land are considerable and complex. They may, however, be broken down into two categories: those issues upon which Tour Operators and pilgrimage group leaders have little or no control due to the policies of the Israeli government (Figure 6); and those decisions over which they have some influence (Figure 7).

Ethical Issues Encountered on Pilgrimages Determined by Israeli Government Policy

Figure 6. Ethical issues determined by Israeli government policy

To a large degree acceptance of these restrictions and the orchestrated Israeli agenda for Holy Land pilgrimages is difficult to resist without causing inconvenience or anxiety to tour participants; endangering the future licensing and livelihood of Palestinian agents, guides or coach drivers; or the profitability of Tour Operators. For example, following the shooting of two British tourists near Eilat in southern Israel in August 1997, allegedly by an Arab, in what the British Foreign Office described as "a straight forward criminal act", the Israeli Embassy in London exploited the tension by claiming in advice to foreign tourists,

Subsequently it transpired that the attack was the work of an Israeli who had been a member of an undercover military team involved in the assassination of Palestinian political activists in Gaza.

There are, however, some ethical choices and decisions which Tour Operators and individual tour group leaders have considerable freedom to make, whether intentionally or by default (Figure 7).

Summary of Ethical Decisions Faced by Holy Land Tour Operators and Group Leaders

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Figure 7. Ethical Decisions Faced by Tour Operators and Group Leaders

8. Responsible Pilgrimages: Some Proposals
In addressing these complex and controversial ethical issues associated with managing and promoting pilgrimages and religious tourism to Israel and the Occupied Territories, what constitutes responsible tourism? In the light of this research, the following nine distinctive characteristics are offered as a basis for further discussion and investigation (Figure 8).

Summary of Distinctive Characteristics of Responsible Pilgrimages to the Holy Land

Figure 8. Summary of the distinctive characteristics of responsible tourism to the Holy Land

The essential task for those who aspire to promoting responsible tourism and religious pilgrimages to Israel and the Occupied Territories is to face the twofold challenge of discovering and then implementing the ways and means by which the tourism industry can bring benefit to the Palestinian economy and Christian communities. They need contact and work while we need local guides, hotels, and transport services. If we are to avoid the creation of a Christian Disney World managed by expatriates but devoid of indigenous Christians, it is imperative that these communities be given the opportunity to become self-sustaining, ensuring not merely their survival into the next millennium but also their growth and prosperity. Solidarity and partnership through responsible tourism is one answer.

For the majority of Christian pilgrims who travel to the Holy Land to continue to ignore the indigenous Church in such a troubled situation, where they are ignored and maligned, is not only deeply offensive to them, it is surely a contradiction of our faith, and ultimately immoral before God. It is nothing less than to perpetuate the evil of the Levite in the Parable of the Good Samaritan who walked by on the other side. He should have known better.

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