Focus on Issues: As Israeli Tourism Industry Reels, Jewish Leaders Criticize Travel Warning

A swelling chorus of Jewish leaders and their allies is stepping up pressure on the U.S. State Department to lift a sweeping warning against travel to Israel that has damaged the Jewish state’s economy.

According to some estimates, the nosedive in tourism since the current round of violence began in late September will have cost Israel $300 million to $500 million by year’s end and forced the layoff of as many as 20,000 Jewish and Arab workers.

Closer to home, the State Department warning has had a ripple effect on airlines and New York-area businesses related to the tourism industry, such as travel agencies, New York City Councilman Noach Dear said.

The State Department, however, apparently will leave the warning in place until the situation on the ground is “safer and more secure” for American visitors, a spokesman said.

“When the situation changes, we’ll change the warning,” he said.

Both Jewish and Palestinian Americans are complaining about the warning’s economic impact, the spokesman said, “but that cannot, however, be a factor in our decision-making process. Right now, we continue to believe the travel warning accurately reflects the situation on the ground.”

The U.S. advisory, posted Oct. 24, begins: “The Department of State warns U.S. citizens to defer all travel to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. The U.S. Government has indications that there is a heightened threat of terrorist incidents in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. American citizens should exercise caution and avoid shopping areas, malls, public buses and bus stops as well as crowded areas and demonstrations. American citizens should maintain a low profile and take appropriate steps to reduce their vulnerability.”

Such warnings are based on analyses from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem. The warnings generally are issued for an entire country, not for particular regions that are most dangerous, the State Department spokesman said.

Some Jewish leaders say the warning, together with heavy media coverage, fuels the misperception that all of Israel is wracked by violence. To combat that, they have gone on the offensive.

On Dec. 4, councilman Dear sponsored a resolution calling on the State Department to lift the warning. It passed the council by a vote of 51-0, but has had no practical effect.

On Monday, a delegation of six American mayors who traveled to Israel last month on a trip sponsored by the American Jewish Congress also urged the government to lift the warning.

“Our safety and security were never in doubt and we saw no signs of strife,” Boise, Idaho Mayor H. Brent Coles said in a released statement. “While we understand that isolated incidents of violence do occur, what we saw was a peaceful nation.”

On Tuesday the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations issued a rare “Kol Koreh” — a clarion call — urging American Jews to reaffirm their solidarity with Israel, ignore the travel warning, and visit the country.

Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Presidents Conference, said he would continue to lobby State Department officials to “see our point of view, and define” the warning “rather than leaving it so general.”

He concedes, however, that the Nov. 22 bombing of a bus in the northern Israeli town of Hadera hurt the claim that the violence is generally confined to the territories. Three weeks earlier, a terrorist bomb exploded in the heart of Jerusalem, and the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo has been fired upon almost nightly.

Dear said the warning is excessively harsh, and alleged it is motivated by political, not security, considerations.

“It’s a way to put pressure on Israel, to punish it for not making peace with the Arabs,” he said. “This president wants to walk out with the Nobel Peace Prize, and it’s not going to happen.”

The State Department spokesman responded that he had heard that complaint “a thousand times.”

“It is completely unfounded, baseless, untrue and has no relation to fact,” he said. “The one and only consideration is the safety and security of American citizens. We present what we believe is an accurate description of the situation on the ground.”

Meanwhile, the warning — not to mention the bloodshed itself — has derailed what was expected to be a record- breaking year for Israeli tourism, said Arie Sommer, Israeli Commissioner for Tourism for North America.

The Jewish state was expecting more than 3 million tourists this year, but 70 percent of all trips planned for October through December have been canceled, Sommer said.

American travelers themselves generally make up about 20 percent of tourists to Israel.

“So much was invested in promotion and marketing,” said Sommer, “then one morning, everything went down the drain.”

That desperation was reflected by the Israeli manager of Kfar Kedem, a recreated mishnaic-era village in the Galilee, who recently wrote an open letter to American Jewish communities.

“I look around me today and the beauty of the Galilee is at its peak following the first rains,” Menachem Goldberg wrote. “Our sheep are grazing on the fresh grass while the our herd of donkeys idle in their sheds. The olive press remains still and the threshing floor is vacant.

“And where are the tourists?” Goldberg asked the American Jews. “Where is the real `Partnership 2000′ now that we need you? And where is the dignity and courage of the American Jewish community that is not frightened away by the propaganda broadcast daily on CNN?

“We don’t need solidarity missions to Gilo or angry letters to the New York Times. We need you!”