One man’s lonely battle with ‘alternative tourism’

Ardie Geldman has been hosting tour groups in Efrat since the early 1990s,

By ESTERA WIEJA
One man’s lonely battle with ‘alternative tourism’ (photo credit: Estera Wieja/ ICEJ )
One man’s lonely battle with ‘alternative tourism’
(photo credit: Estera Wieja/ ICEJ )
Israel is a land awash with tourists, most here to see the historic sites revered by Jews and Christians.
Tourism is a pillar of both the Israeli and Palestinian economies, and many tour operators are constantly trying to dress up their itineraries with new and exciting angles to draw more visitors to the Holy Land.
Thus in recent years a wave of new specialty tours have sprung up, such as the routes which take in some of the dozens of boutique wineries that have sprouted in the scenic Eila Valley. There are new bike routes and walking paths in the Galilee that slow the pace down for pilgrims and allow time for reflection on the important biblical sites all around. There is even the new phenomenon of “medical tourism,” whereby foreigners are issued special visas to come receive innovative treatments at Israel’s world-renowned hospitals.
Besides the vital income it brings in, tourism to the Holy Land also provides millions of visitors with their first up-close impressions of a land locked in conflict, and many tourists form opinions about the Israeli-Palestinian dispute which can last a lifetime and influence still others back home. Visitors cannot help but be exposed to the politics and daily struggles, even those who dutifully stick close to their hotels and tour buses, just as the tour companies want.
Thus, both sides have seen the need to develop specialty tours that serve as tools for shaping the visiting public’s image of the country and the conflict. After all, every visitor, no matter how ill-informed they are upon arrival, leaves a potential lifelong activist for one side or the other.
On the Israeli side, these tours are often called “study missions” or “solidarity missions” and include heavy doses of lectures by academics and government officials explaining the long and complex backdrop to the struggle over the land.
On the Palestinian side, one of the new ways being used to delegitimize Israel and denounce its presence in Judea and Samaria is through carefully crafted itineraries that have come to be labeled “protest tourism” or “alternative tourism.”
“This is where foreign visitors are offered tour packages of the Holy Land that are not like normal pilgrimages to come see the holy sites, but a specially designed tour that highlights Palestinian suffering and grievances against Israel,” Ardie Geldman, a former town councilor from the settlement of Efrat, recently explained to The Christian Edition.
Geldman should know! He admits to having become “the go-to guy for many of these pro-Palestinian tours that want to offer some ‘balance’ through the voice of a lone Jewish settler.”
“I have been asked to address hundreds of groups on these anti-Israel tours over recent years,” said Geldman. “I know what they are told and shown for days on end, and then I have an hour at most to try to counter the negative impressions they are given about Israel and the settlements.”
These groups visit the security fence, for instance, or IDF checkpoints and other sites that give a one-sided picture of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And the number of tour operators offering these itineraries and the amount of people coming on them has been increasingly on the rise, he said.
“Some of these folks are already hardened against Israel, but most are innocent visitors unaware of the steeped propaganda they are being fed,” Geldman added.
These visitors are plied with stories about the Israeli “occupation” and difficulties of life behind the “Wall,” of families barred from visiting relatives across the Green Line, and homes demolished by Israeli bulldozers, Geldman noted. The emotional impact of such encounters can be powerful.
“They often don’t come here to learn, but rather they come to convey a message to us, and to me, as a token settler,” said Geldman. “A visit to a city like ours also allows participants to serve as eyewitnesses to the physical comforts of settlement life in comparison to the miserable living conditions they are taken to see in Palestinian refugee camps and villages.”
Geldman has been hosting such tour groups in Efrat since the early 1990s, when he was basically the town’s spokesman. He is proud to represent his modern Orthodox community, which identifies itself as being religious Zionist.
Efrat is located just south of Bethlehem and is considered an upscale community that has attracted many Anglo-Jewish immigrants.
“I have noticed on many group itineraries that I am labeled as ‘the settlement’ or ‘a settler,’ as if I didn’t have a name,” Geldman confided with disappointment. “We are not people, we are just a flagship of the adversary.”
Each tour is carefully orchestrated to immerse foreign visitors in a mindset that Israel is synonymous with “the occupation.” The challenge which Geldman takes on is trying to reverse this negative picture of Israel in a very short time. Rarely is there a friendly voice in the crowd. But Geldman believes he is making a difference.
“In order to present a more balanced perspective of Israeli-Palestinian relations, nothing needs to be created or fabricated. The status quo is sufficient,” Geldman assured.
In one recent success, Geldman agreed to meet a group organized by a liberal Protestant denomination in the parking lot of the Rami Levy grocery store located between Efrat and Bethlehem. One of the busiest stores operated by the discount Israeli grocery chain, the modern isles were packed with Jews and Arabs shopping peacefully side-by-side, as if it were a grocery store in North America.
“It was a busy Friday morning and people saw Jews and Arabs getting along just fine. It totally dispelled what they have been told about the conflict up to that point. I hardly had to say a word,” he recalled with a smile.
Still, Israel’s security barrier has become a potent symbol of Israeli “oppression” that is not easily overcome, he admitted, especially if visitors are not given the background as to why it was built in the first place. Visitors are also taken to the five percent of the barrier that is indeed an imposing concrete wall, and are not shown the rest of the chain-link fence or the hundreds of gates and tunnels installed to provide Palestinians access to their jobs and fields.
Another problematic symbol is the IDF checkpoints scattered throughout the West Bank. Many tour groups visit the busiest checkpoints leading from Bethlehem and Ramallah into Jerusalem on packed week-day mornings.
“Although imperfect and problematic, military checkpoints are nonetheless necessary as they help foil terrorist efforts aimed at innocent civilians,” Geldman insisted.
Some pro-Palestinian activists argue there have not been any major terror attacks in recent years and still innocent people are being held up for hours and treated with no respect. But defenders of these security measures stress that the checkpoints and security barrier are precisely why there have not been any major attacks of late.
Statistics confirm that terrorist activities have dropped dramatically since the erection of the security fence around the West Bank. Yet these statistics have to compete with emotive images of Palestinian women and children being held up by Israeli soldiers, Geldman conceded.
Similarly, a visit to a Palestinian Arab home demolished by IDF forces rarely comes with the real explanation of why it was razed.
Many Palestinians refuse to apply for building permits or pursue their right of appeal in an Israeli court due to pressure from militants not to accept Israel’s authority, even though the Oslo Accords give Israel civilian control over large areas of the West Bank. Other times, homes of convicted terrorists are destroyed as a deterrent against further terror activity – a policy first introduced by the British in Mandate times.
Geldman is now seeking to become more pro-active in his efforts by organizing his own informational tours that face up to the complexities of the conflict – both the good and the bad.
“I don’t want to preach to the choir, nor do I want the bitter anti-Semites. I want to target those in the vast middle who have little knowledge of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but are just good people wanting to see a resolution to this dispute,” he said.
“The itineraries must also draw attention to the impressive recent growth of the Palestinian economy and Israel’s contribution to this phenomenon. A single visit to a joint Israeli-Palestinian project generates images and affect that are many times more powerful than a hundred fact-laden lectures.”