NEWS FEATURE: Holy Land braces for the millennium amid a host of uncertainties

c. 1998 Religion News Service BETHLEHEM, West Bank _ This ancient town, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, is in the throes of being transformed from a dusty and neglected backwater to what Palestinians hope will be a world-class tourist destination for the year 2000, a place of tree-lined parks, luxury hotels and historic old-quarter renovations. […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

BETHLEHEM, West Bank _ This ancient town, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, is in the throes of being transformed from a dusty and neglected backwater to what Palestinians hope will be a world-class tourist destination for the year 2000, a place of tree-lined parks, luxury hotels and historic old-quarter renovations.

However, it is not just Bethlehem that is being readied for an anticipated wave of millennium-connected tourism in the Holy Land. Key sites in other cities and towns such as Jerusalem and Nazareth are filled with the sounds of construction.


But while work at ground zero proceeds apace, religious and political leaders are asking whether the Holy Land’s residents will indeed be ready _ politically, emotionally and spiritually _ by 2000 for the expected hordes of tourists.

Over the course of the coming year, a number of landmark political events will likely converge on the countdown calendar with unpredictable consequences. Chief among them are Israeli elections for a new prime minister and a possible Palestinian declaration of statehood in May 1999 _ events sure to set off a chain reaction impacting the Arab-Israeli peace process, as well as the tone and magnitude of millennial celebrations.

A papal visit is another uncertainty. Top Vatican official Cardinal Roger Etchegaray recently expressed the”hope that Pope John Paul II might himself come in pilgrimage to this Holy Land.”Earlier, the pope expressed his desire to convene a”historic meeting in a place of exceptional symbolic importance between Jews, Muslims and Christians.” Meanwhile, religious and political leaders are wondering what impact millions of Christian pilgrims in the year 2000 might have on the delicate and troubled web of Jewish-Muslim relations in the Holy Land _ and vice versa.

One fear is the possibility of collaboration between messianic-minded Jewish and fundamentalist Christian extremists aimed at sabotaging Muslim holy sites, such as the mosques that currently grace Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, the site of the biblical Jewish temples.

Far more likely, however, are simple incidents of petty intolerance or harassment that could nonetheless take on larger-than-life proportions against the emotional backdrop of the millennium.”There is the year 2000 as the tourism event, and the year 2000 as the intense, spectacular religious event,”said Gershom Gorenberg, a Jerusalem liaison to Boston University’s Center For Millennial Studies.”Even though there is some interaction between the two, nobody will know until December 31, 2000 how closely related they will be.” Israel is expecting some 4.5 million tourists to cross her borders in 2000 _ double the number who came in 1998. Bethlehem Mayor Hanna Nasser expects about 3 million will visit the city of Jesus’ birth over the coming two years.

The overriding concern of many of the church leaders involved in preparing for the millennium is the fate of the peace process in the coming year.”If there is peace, there will be a full house. If there is no peace, forget it,”said Monsignor Richard Mathes, a Vatican attache in Jerusalem.”If leaders would find a solution to that long-standing conflict, they would give a gift to Christianity far more important than the infrastructure projects,”said Metropolitan Timothy of Vostra, a top official in Jerusalem’s Greek Orthodox Patriarchate.”This is a prayer and a wish for the year 2000.” Frail and aging, the pope is perhaps the most prominent pilgrim whose plans depend on the vagaries of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations _ now made even more complicated by the need for a new election in Israel following the disintegration of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition.

Vatican sources say preliminary planning for a pontifical visit is underway, but that a final go-ahead depends on the political climate.”The pope wants his visit to be a source of reconciliation, love and peace _ and not more hatred,”said one senior local Catholic Church figure.


The underlying ambivalence of both Israelis and Palestinians toward a papal visit was evident in remarks made recently by Bethlehem’s Nasser in a meeting with reporters.

Speaking on the eve of the December visit to the town by President Clinton, Nasser said the pope has an”open invitation”from Palestinians to visit Jesus’ birthplace in the year 2000. But he added that most Palestinians might prefer the Catholic leader to avoid Jerusalem as long as Christian sites there remain under Israeli occupation.

Whether or not the pope visits, Catholic pilgrims also are expected to comprise the largest bloc of tourists who will flock to the Holy Land in connection with the millennium. Up to 2 million Catholics may arrive, mostly from Europe and the United States, according to church projections.

Catholics tend to be anti-apocalyptic, church leaders here say, and it is hoped that they will set the overall tone of millennial events here _ stressing the”renewal of faith,”in line with Vatican directives, rather than end-time scenarios of messianic expectations.”This is absolutely out of the view of the local church,”said leading Catholic Church official Kamel Bathish, referring to pilgrims coming with apocalyptic expectations.”The jubilee year is a year of grace, not a year of other things.” Still, Christian fringe groups could destabilize the celebrations if they manage to slip through the filter of Israel’s security services, noted Rabbi David Rosen, head of the Jerusalem office of the Anti-Defamation League and member of a steering committee on Israeli-Vatican relations.”I would say that the greatest fear is of `millennial’ elements within Christian evangelical Protestantism, linking up with extreme Jewish fanatics _ both with their own agenda that involves conflict with Islam,”said Rosen.”The possibility of small groups or even individual extremists setting up a destructive chain reaction needs to be borne in mind.” Many messianic-oriented Christians believe that in order for the Messiah to return, the third Jewish temple must be built on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, where the Dome of the Rock and Al Aksa mosques now stand. They also believe Israel’s Jews must convert to Christianity.

Given such apocalyptic expectations, as well as the inherent emotional power of millennial events, Israel’s authorities could be faced with a potentially explosive cocktail of religious emotions, warned Richard Landes of the Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University.

Israel’s security services are becoming increasingly attuned to the dangers of millennial cults, Rosen said, following recent attempts by members of such groups to enter the country. In one incident, 10 members of a Colorado sect led by Monte Tim Miller entered Israel sometime in November, apparently to await Miller’s”death and resurrection”in Jerusalem.


Israeli police confirmed the group’s entry into the country, but would say no more about the matter, calling it a”security matter.” While millennial extremists may pose the most explosive threat to the peace in 2000, some church leaders also are concerned about how the Israeli public will react to such an overtly Christian event. A recent rampage by ultra-Orthodox Jews against the apartment of two Christian women living in Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim neighborhood, and another ultra-Orthodox attack on a Christian congregation in the southern Israeli town of Beersheva has heightened such worries. “Here we are going to have a major Christian celebration and we don’t know how they (Israelis) are going to react,”said Father Robert Fortin, secretary general to the Catholic Church’s Jerusalem Jubilee committee.”We have had some other incidents recently, which make us wonder.” The locus of potential trouble is Jerusalem, which is home to a large ultra-Orthodox and Orthodox Jewish population playing an increasingly important role in local and national politics.

While the Catholic Church has sought to make interfaith dialogue a key theme of the year _ and indeed some groundbreaking meetings were held recently between Israel’s chief rabbis and Catholic leaders _ the vast majority of Orthodox Jews at the grassroots have little experience with modern-day Christianity, said Rosen.”A lot needs to be done on both sides,”he observed.”Catholics think that when they come here they are visiting a museum of the life of Jesus. They are not aware of the encounter with reality. Most Jews, meanwhile, don’t have a proper perspective on the spiritual motives behind Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Land.”Many Jews are still under the impact of the trauma of the historic past, and suspect Christians of ulterior motives, namely proselytization.” Exacerbating the Christian-Jewish theological divide in Jerusalem is the political dispute over the fate of the holy city. The city’s Orthodox Jews, and its political leadership, believe that the entire city should remain under Israeli sovereignty. Jerusalem’s Christian community is predominantly Arab, and wants the Palestinian Authority to take control of Christian holy sites and neighborhoods.

The gulf of intolerance and Christian-Jewish alienation is reflected in the patronizing tone of language used by Jerusalem’s top city officials today. Asked about public readiness for the millennium, Shmuel Eviatar, Mayor Ehud Olmert’s adviser on Christian communities, complained bitterly of alleged church anti-Semitism toward Jews.

He then accused Jerusalem’s Arab Christian leadership of”swinishness”_ a Hebrew expression for disgusting behavior _ towards Israeli authorities overseeing renovation work.”Here we are renovating the Old City, spending millions of dollars (for the year 2000) and has even one person called me to say thank you?”complained Eviatar.”The leaders among them behave like swine in the parable of the pig that sat under the oak tree and dug away at its roots, without recognizing the benefits that he gets from the tree itself. All day we work for them, and all of the time there are complaints.” (STORY MAY END HERE. OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)

Asked to comment, a Jerusalem city spokeswoman said that Eviatar’s complaint of Christian”swinishness”alluded to the shortsighted way in which the pig in the story destroys its beneficiary _ the oak tree _ and was not intended as a descriptive label of the Christian leadership.

In a subsequent, written statement, spokesman Hagai Elias said Eviatar’s remark was”not the answer that he gave.” In contrast to Jerusalem, church-state relations in Bethlehem today appear to have improved since the Palestinian Authority took control of the city three years ago. Although Christians are a small minority of the Palestinian population _ and Bethlehem itself is only 35 percent Christian _ Christmas has been declared a national Palestinian holiday.


Palestinian President Yasser Arafat seems to have adopted the Bethlehem 2000 project of renovations and millennial events as a showcase to demonstrate the achievements of his fledgling Palestinian Authority.

Visiting the Church of the Nativity with President Clinton in early December, a beaming Arafat heard Christmas carols like”Oh Little Town of Bethlehem”sung in Arabic _ an event that highlighted the way in which the ancient city, and its Arab Christian community might serve as a vital cultural bridge between Palestinians and the West.

Arafat, whose wife Suha is Christian, also seems to view Bethlehem 2000 as a opportunity for the Palestinian Authority to demonstrate its ability to manage internationally important religious sites and exhibit tolerance toward religious minorities _ thus bolstering Arab claims to disputed east Jerusalem holy sites that will be the focus of tough Israeli-Palestinian negotiations over the future of Jerusalem.

In Islam, unlike in Judaism, Jesus is regarded as an important prophet and that single fact can help smooth Muslim acceptance of the essentially Christian millennial events, said Wadie Abu Nasser, an aide to Latin (Catholic) Patriarch Michel Sabbah. “The Palestinian Authority has been working already for more than three years to prepare for the year 2000, and has created a whole special ministry for the effort,”said Abu Nasser.”Arafat is looking to the year 2000 event as a kind of national celebration and it will be a big success, a big victory, if many pilgrims come.” IR END FLETCHER

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