On Wednesday, Israel will welcome 31 of the 33 Chilean miners who were trapped
underground for 68 days last fall.
The miners, accompanied by their wives
and girlfriends, will be in the country for an eight-day pilgrimage, a tour that
will include visits to Christian sites like Via Dolorosa, Capernaum, the Church
of the Holy Sepulcher and King David’s Tomb.
The Tourism Ministry sent a
letter to the miners days after they were rescued, inviting them to visit as
guests of the state.
“Your bravery and strength of spirit, and your great
faith that helped you survive so long in the bowels of the earth, was an
inspiration to us all,” Tourism Minister Stas Miseznikov wrote to
them.
More than a billion people watched the miners’ rescue and joyous
reunion with family members, making it one of the mostwatched television events
ever.
In a segment on CBS’s 60 minutes that aired last week, however,
many of the miners said they were still suffering daily from the traumatic
experience of spending more than two months 800 meters below the surface. In the
16 days before search probes reached their chamber, when the miners were
sustaining on no more than a teaspoon of tuna every 48 hours, they had
considered cannibalism or mass suicide.
Despite the cheerful faces the
miners have shown the world in a series of galas and award ceremonies, all but
one of them have serious psychological problems, and most are on heavy
medication.
Nineteen of the miners have said they lost their medical
disability payments and are uncertain what the future will hold for
them.
The trip also comes six weeks after the Chilean government
announced its recognition of a Palestinian state, following in the footsteps of
other South American countries. The Tourism Ministry said that the pilgrimage,
which is expected to be heavily covered by foreign media, will give Israel a
chance to present a different face to Latin America.
“The pilgrimage of
the Chilean miners to the Holy Land will expose Christians and others around the
world – not just Spanish- speakers – to Israel’s unique religious, historical
and cultural sites,” said Pini Shani the director of the overseas department at
the Tourism Ministry.
“I’m not sure it’s going to affect the Spanish
language media’s perception of Israel in any way, but the survival of Chilean
miners and their faith is such a huge story of human aspiration,” said Noga
Tarnopolsky, the director of Punto Press, an organization that provides support
services for Spanish language media in Israel. Punto is hosting a private
reception for the media and the Chilean miners on Thursday night.
“The
trip will give readers and viewers of Spanish language media an opportunity to
see an aspect of Middle Eastern life that they don’t get to see,” she said.