January 6, 1999
Holy Land preparing
the way for millennial pilgrims
___BETHLEHEM, West Bank (RNS)--This ancient town, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, is in the throes of being transformed from a dusty and neglected backwater to what Palestinians hope will be a world-class tourist destination for the year 2000, a place of tree-lined parks, luxury hotels and historic old-quarter renovations.
___However, it is not just Bethlehem that is being readied for an anticipated wave of millennium-connected tourism in the Holy Land. Key sites such as Jerusalem and Nazareth are filled with the sounds of construction.
___But religious and political leaders are askingwhether the Holy Land's residents will indeed be ready--politically, emotionally and spiritually--by 2000 for the expected hordes of tourists.
ZION GATE in Jerusalem, which leads to the Armenian Quarter.
___Over the course of the coming year, a number of landmark political events likely will converge on the countdown calendar with unpredictable consequences. Chief among them are Israeli elections for a new prime minister and a possible Palestinian declaration of statehood in May 1999--events sure to set off a chain reaction impacting the Arab-Israeli peace process.
___Meanwhile, religious and political leaders are wondering what impact millions of Christian pilgrims in the year 2000 might have on the delicate and troubled web of Jewish-Muslim relations in the Holy Land--and vice versa.
___One fear is the possibility of collaboration between messianic-minded Jewish and fundamentalist Christian extremists aimed at sabotaging Muslim holy sites, such as the mosques that currently grace Jerusalem's Temple Mount, the site of the biblical Jewish temples.
___Far more likely, however, are simple incidents of petty intolerance or harassment that could nonetheless take on larger-than-life proportions.
___Israel is expecting 4.5 million tourists to cross her borders in 2000--double the number who came in 1998. Bethlehem Mayor Hanna Nasser expects 3 million will visit the city of Jesus' birth over two years.
___While millennial extremists may pose the most explosive threat to the peace in 2000, some church leaders also are concerned about how the Israeli public will react to such an overtly Christian event.
___Exacerbating the Christian-Jewish theological divide in Jerusalem is the political dispute over the fate of the holy city. The city's Orthodox Jews, and its political leadership, believe that the entire city should remain under Israeli sovereignty. Jerusalem's Christian community is predominantly Arab and wants the Palestinian Authority to take control of Christian holy sites.
___Palestinian President Yasser Arafat seems to have adopted the Bethlehem 2000 project of renovations and millennial events as a showcase to demonstrate the achievements of his fledgling Palestinian Authority.Frontpage / Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!