Advice from one Israeli tourism minister to another

[Israeli]

Mr. Levin, tell the big travel agencies abroad you want to bring tourists to Judea and Samaria and that the occupation is a myth promulgated by Israel-bashers.

By Uzi Baram

When I was Israel’s tourism minister, I knew my primary job was to get more tourists to visit the country. I thought that an increase in tourism would bring Israel economic and diplomatic benefits. To achieve such an increase, Israel must be marketed as a country full of places holy to all the monotheistic religions, and presented as a democratic country that aspires with all its might to reach peace with its neighbors.

Recently I read that Tourism Minister Yariv Levin believes that one of his primary tasks is to market the Tomb of the Patriarchs and other sites to Israel’s schoolchildren, so that they internalize our right to this land. If we’re already dragging schoolchildren into it, I would also take them to Degania, to the British police fort at Iraq Suwaydan [a Palestinian village destroyed in 1948], and to Arab villages so that they understand the significance of coexistence.

But that’s not the job of the tourism minister. Perhaps it’s the job of the education minister, although I’m not convinced of that, either. In any case it’s clear that the job of the tourism minister, at least as it’s usually defined, is to market Israel abroad.

So by all means, Mr. Levin, go to the tourism fairs held every year in London and Berlin and try to market your wares there. Speak to the big travel agencies about the Tomb of the Patriarchs and try to sell them on its attractiveness. Tell them that the occupation is a myth promulgated by Israel-bashers at home and abroad, and that you want to bring tourists to Judea and Samaria to better understand the reality of our lives.

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.662695

[Israeli]

1. more......

Given his undeniable eagerness and diligence, Levin might actually try this. Perhaps then he will understand that our international image will not be improved by student trips under army auspices to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, which is a tomb of dispute between Judaism and Islam.

I’m not writing this because I want to harm tourism; naturally I want it to flourish. I just want to point out what we all know and are afraid to say out loud: The State of Israel does not want to resolve the conflict with the Palestinians through two states for two peoples, perhaps because with determination and devotion it is creating two states for one people.

We must recognize that many people in Israel accept the legitimacy of the settlement enterprise and see it as an indivisible part of the State of Israel. However, there are many others who categorically make a distinction between their attachment to the State of Israel within the June 4, 1967 borders, and their attitude toward the territories Israel is trying to annex in an evolutionary fashion, dealing a fatal blow to the Palestinian population there as well as to Israel’s moral strength.

We will all be partners in defending the State of Israel. We will battle against those who boycott it or who deny its right to exist as if we were [Justice Minister] Ayelet Shaked. But the entity that’s been built in the territories does not represent us. We oppose it and we aren’t prepared to sacrifice for it, not even abroad or within international organizations.

What was born in sin – not just of the right – is a sin, and we cannot paper it over with messianic brainwashing and security arguments that portray it as an inseparable part of us. Practically speaking – even if unintentionally – a reality has emerged that is cracking the broad consensus among Israeli citizens. It’s time for such things to be said publicly by opposition spokesmen (other than those of Yisrael Beiteinu), who must loyally represent the position of the voters who elected them.

Source: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.662695