Kol Urges Tourism to Israel

Israel’s Minister of Tourism, Moshe Kol, announced yesterday the opening of a new campaign aimed at encouraging and promoting Americans of all denominations to visit Israel this year. Speaking at the meeting of Christian and Jewish leaders sponsored by the American Jewish Committee, Kol said that the new plan is based on the special relationship between clergymen and their congregations. The program involves more than 100,000 Jewish and Christian clergymen and is designed to motivate the largest possible number to lead their parishioners in travel to Israel.

“Only those who visit Israel can really understand it” Kol stated adding that “tourism has greater meaning,” apart from the economic aspect, because it contributes to better understanding between people. Kol recently met with Pope Paul VI in Rome and then followed up the Israel Ministry of Tourism’s preparations for the current Holy Year by meeting with top American Catholic religious leaders. In his current visit here Kol has met with key Jewish and Protestant leaders regarding the new plan.

According to the Tourism Minister, there was a decline of six percent in tourism to Israel in 1974. Tourists from America to Israel totaled ten percent less than in 1973. Kol said that this could be attributed to the economic problems facing the United States. Kol also noted that more than 124,000 citizens of hostile Arab countries visited Israel last year, entering the country through Jordan.

“Though they do not appear on our statistical reports, they return and give witness to the fact that Arabs and Jews can and do live in peace,” he said. Declaring that Jerusalem must “never be divided again,” Kol said that everybody is free to come and pray in the holy city. “In fact,” he added, “if King Faisal of Saudi Arabia would wish to worship in united Jerusalem, I myself would be glad to welcome him.”

Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum, National Director for Interreligious Affairs of the AJCcommittee, who introduced Kol, said that “Tourism has a particularly creative function to serve in the Middle East, where it can help build a sense of fraternity and mutual interdependence among Christians, Muslims and Jews. However important politics and economics are for the future of the Middle East, the building of human friendships on a person-to-person basis in the last analysis will determine the shape of co-existence and daily life for all the people of that area.”