Israel’s Tourism Triumph

Edwin Black, the New York Times bestselling author IBM and the Holocaust and Financing the Flames wrote an insightful article for the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies under the caption “Israel’s Tourism Triumph.

Black highlighted the importance of Christian pilgrimage to the increase of tourism numbers and also the two most visited sites in Jerusalem.

“Christians constitute the majority of tourists visiting Israel, many on religious quests. Generally speaking, Christian pilgrims are completely detached from Palestinian and Israeli political dynamics. Christian tourists can be seen in Israel every day of the year.”

“Two Jerusalem tunnels have emerged as among Israel’s greatest attractions, luring tourists from many countries. Testifying from below ground, these tunnels manifest Israel’s incontrovertible connection to the land and its history.”

“Most prominent are the Western Wall or Kotel tunnels. Only an approximately 200-foot section of the Kotel is above ground. The rest – nearly 1,600 feet – lies underground and can only be experienced via the tunnel complex. This monolithic testament to Judaism’s ancient connection to Biblical Jerusalem is revealed in the enormity of the massive stones and their tell-tale chisel marks. One such stone weighs more than 500 tons – one of the heaviest ever handled.”

“The second major underground attraction is Hezekiah’s Tunnel, a below-ground water conduit approximately 600 yards in length (1,200 cubits). This length corresponds to the tunnel’s stone inscription discovered in 1880 and now residing in a Turkish museum. The amazing engineering feat was presumably the work of King Hezekiah ahead of a siege by Assyrian King Sennacherib at the end of the eighth century BCE, described and alluded to in several Biblical passages. Among them is 2 Chronicles 32:2-4, which states, “When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and that he intended to wage war against Jerusalem, he consulted with his officials and military staff about blocking off the water from the springs outside the city, and they helped him. They gathered a large group of people who blocked all the springs and the stream that flowed through the land. ‘Why should the kings of Assyria come and find plenty of water?’ they said.”

While the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) campaign to prevent people to visit Israel, the tourism industry in Israel experience an unprecedented level of growth.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) is designed to delegitimize the State of Israel. Its object is to target the country’s very identity and legacy.

The phenomenal growth in tourism numbers to Israel is a clear indication of the failure of the BDS campaign.