Visits to Old City usually peak during period but tourist numbers in Israel have fallen significantly over last two years

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Churches and traders in Jerusalem are braced for a quiet Easter after a fall in pilgrim numbers over the past two years blamed on fears of continuing violence.

The number of tourists visiting Israel in January this year was down 24% on the same month in 2014, according to the ministry of tourism.

Easter usually sees a peak in the number of pilgrims visiting Jerusalem’s Old City to mark the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus.



This year, Roman Catholics and Protestant denominations celebrate Easter on 27 March, and the eastern Orthodox churches mark it on Sunday 1 May – an unusually long gap.



The number of people taking part in last weekend’s traditional Palm Sunday procession – from the Mount of Olives to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, via the Garden of Gethsemane and the Via Dolorosa – was estimated by church sources to be 15,000, compared with more than 25,000 last year.



On Good Friday, thousands are expected to retrace the footsteps of Jesus along the 14 stations of the cross to the site of his crucifixion, many carrying heavy wooden crosses which are available to rent by the hour or day.



On Sunday, pilgrims will pack into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which stands on the site where Jesus was crucified and buried. Five weeks later, the church will also be the scene of the orthodox churches’ stunning, if hazardous, ancient holy fire ceremony.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Clergymen hold up palm fronds during a procession in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Palm Sunday. Photograph: Atef Safadi/EPA

But Jamal Khader, the rector of the Latin Patriarchate Seminary, said there had been a significant fall in the number of pilgrims visiting the Holy Land since the war in Gaza in 2014. The spike in violence in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Israeli towns over the past six months had been an additional deterrent.



People were discouraged by government warnings to tourists and the reluctance of insurance companies to provide cover, he said.



“The streets in the Old City are almost empty, especially around Damascus Gate,” he said. There have been several stabbings at the main northern entrance to the walled city in recent months.



“Many tourists are changing their schedules to avoid the Old City. But it’s not just tourists and pilgrims, local Palestinians avoid it too because of the heavy presence of [Israeli] soldiers.”



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Abu Ahmed, a shopkeeper in the Old City, said there were far fewer tourists and pilgrims this year. “It is very quiet, very bad. I am hardly selling anything,” he said while arranging his display of wooden crosses, incense and other religious souvenirs near the Holy Sepulchre.



Bethlehem, the city of Jesus’s birth, which is in the West Bank and cut off from Jerusalem by the Israeli-built separation barrier, had been even harder hit over the past two years, Khader said.



“Tourism is a really important part of Bethlehem’s economy. People have made big investments, but many hotels are closed, empty or operating with very low numbers.”



Palestinian Christians also face difficulties in visiting Jerusalem’s holy sites at Easter. Those living in the West Bank and Gaza need special permits to travel to Jerusalem.



Israel has issued about 850 permits – a comparatively large number – to Palestinian Christians living in Gaza this year, Muhammad al-Maqadma of the Palestinian Ministry of Civil Affairs told the Ma’an news site.



The number of permits issued to Palestinian Christians in the West Bank has not been disclosed. The Israeli military closed checkpoints between the West Bank and Jerusalem to Palestinians between Wednesday and Saturday nights because of the Jewish holiday of Purim, allowing only medical emergencies through.



“Even if people have permits, often they cannot travel,” said Khader. The “very idea of needing permits to go to pray in holy sites is against freedom of worship,” he added.

There are about 1,300 Christians in Gaza, a tiny fraction of its 1.8 million population. About 50,000 Christians live in the West Bank, mainly in and around Bethlehem.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Worshippers light candles inside the Church of the Nativity, the site revered as the birthplace of Jesus, in Bethlehem. Photograph: Ammar Awad/Reuters

According to Yusef Daher of the Jerusalem Inter-Church Center, last year the Israeli authorities issued about 10,000 permits to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. But around half were problematic, he added.



“Often permits are issued for only some members of the family – the wife, or the children. Some permits are issued for dead people,” said Daher.

Israeli hotel bookings for Passover, which this year begins at sunset on Friday 22 April and lasts for a week, are also down. The Israel Hotel Association said capacity was expected to be about 70% at a time of year when vacancies are normally scarce.



Ilanit Melchior, the tourism director of the Jerusalem Development Authority, said there had been a noticeable decline in visitors from the US, and among Israelis living in other parts of the country who were visiting Jerusalem.



But, she said, thousands of people from all over the world had travelled to the city for the Jerusalem marathon last weekend.



In a statement, the Israeli tourism minister, Yariv Levin, said terrorism had “long become a global phenomenon. It hits hard not only in the Middle East but has also spread out into the capitals of Europe, America and the Far East – basically everywhere.”