A Theme Park for the Holy Land?

A Theme Park for the Holy Land?
American Evangelicals and Israeli Officials

Plan to Unveil a $60 Million Park Where Jesus

Walked
By ILENE R. PRUSHER

JERUSALEM, Nov. 13, 2005 — -

Officials in

Israel say that out of about two million people

who will realize their dream of visiting the

Holy Land this year, more than half will be

Christian. And among those, more than half will

be evangelical.

With that in mind, the Israeli ministry of

tourism has gone public with a plan to build --

in partnership primarily with American

evangelical churches -- a sprawling Holy Land

Christian Center on the northern shores of the

Sea of Galilee, home to some of the most

notable chapters in Jesus' ministry.

The center, to be built on approximately 125

acres that the Israeli government is offering

free of cost, would be a Christian theme park

and visitors' center, one that would be

particularly attractive to evangelicals and

other Christians who want to spend more time in

the places where Jesus walked.

Highlights may include a Holy Bible Garden,

full of plants and trees mentioned in the New

Testament, and equipped with quiet sites for

reflection and prayer. A Sea of Galilee

Amphitheater will overlook the mouth of the

Jordan River and hold 1,500-2,000 worshippers.

And the park will have a Christian Experience

Auditorium and a Multimedia Center.

The center would also feature an online

broadcast center, which would give religious

leaders an opportunity to address their

followers back home, live, near the tranquil

blue waters of the Sea of Galilee (which today

is considered a lake).

"It will focus on the real places where Jesus

walked," says Ido Hartuv, a spokesman for the

tourism ministry. "It's a place where pilgrims

can touch the experience -- they can touch the

Bible."

Israeli officials say they are in advanced

discussions with several prominent churches

that will serve as investors and builders of

the $60 million center. Tourism Minister

Abraham Hirschson told the Haaretz newspaper

that he hoped the first of several agreements

would be signed this month, and that one of the

key figures at the heart of the project would

be Pat Robertson, the prominent televangelist

and founder of The 700 Club.

"It thrills me to think that there will be a

place in the Galilee where evangelical

Christians from all over the world can come to

celebrate the actual place where Jesus Christ

lived and taught," Robertson said. "It will be

our pleasure to fully cooperate with this

initiative of the Israeli Government."

Differing Attitudes on Israel

The plans to build the center -- and to turn a

large swath of the pastoral waterside

territory, from Magdala to Bethsaida, into a

Galilee World Heritage Park, complete with

hiking trails along paths Jesus would have

walked -- come at a time of seesawing in

relations between Israel and various U.S.

churches.

Several mainline Protestant churches are

considering pulling their money out of the

stocks of companies that sell military

equipment to Israel in a protest against

Israel's dealing with the Palestinian intifada.

Churches considering an economic boycott point

to the building of the West Bank barrier as

well as an expansion of Israeli settlements

over the Green Line, Israel's pre-1967

boundaries.

In August, the Presbyterian Church passed a

resolution to explore divestment, but no final

decision will be taken before the church's next

convention in the summer of 2006.

Ever since Benjamin Netanyahu -- Israel's prime

minister from 1996 to 1999 -- cultivated ties

with U.S. evangelicals and other Christians

during his tenure, Israeli governments have

sought to strengthen relations with the sector

of the Christian world which, for religious

reasons, tends to take a pro-Israeli view of

the Arab-Jewish conflict.

On Robertson's Web site, he says that God gave

this land "to the descendants of Israel," not

to "so-called Palestinians." Older churches,

such as Orthodox and Catholic denominations,

have more local Palestinian followers and tend

to support that side of the conflict.

But Uri Dagul, the head of the Israel Youth

Hostels Association and the creative force

behind the project, says it is more focused on

tourism than politics. The idea, he says,

reflects an improvement in Jewish-Christian

relations, underscored by the visit of Pope

John Paul II here in 2000. Dagul says the

project should be a nondenominational Christian

center, not an explicitly evangelical one.

Few Places for Christian Reflection

Some of the existing churches and monasteries

on the shores of the Sea of Galilee -- such as

in Tabgha and Capernaum, where Jesus lived for

a time, were built as recently as the early

1900s by prominent churches in the Holy Land --

the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholics,

represented by the Franciscans.

But the area has not, more recently, been

developed for visitors, says Dagul, and so the

busloads of tourists who come to the coast

north of Tiberius find it difficult to secure a

place to pray and reflect, much less find a

rest-stop equipped to accept hundreds of

pilgrims.

"Jerusalem comes only later in the story, but

most of Jesus' history is in the northern part

of the Sea of Galilee," says Dagul. "We can

give people the opportunity to experience it,

to pray here, to broadcast to their home

congregations, to walk on Jesus' trails. People

go to churches all over the world, but this is

the place where it happened."

A spokesman at the International Christian

Embassy in Jerusalem (ICEJ), which represents

Christian Zionists from around the world, views

the center as an important step towards

developing sites for evangelicals, whom he says

make up the fastest-growing segment of

Christians.

"The Protestant world in general got a late

start on the Bible-sites business. While the

Greek Orthodox -- as the successor to the

Byzantine empire -- and the Roman Catholics

have been involved in identifying Christian

sites and maintaining them for pilgrims for

centuries," says David Parsons of the ICEJ.

"It's very astute of the Israeli government to

do this, with all the support of the

evangelical world out there," he adds. "We have

a stake in the tourism industry here, and this

gives us a place to call our own."

Whether the development will resemble a study

center more than a theme park is unclear. The

developers say they plan to check kitsch and

commercialism at the door.

"No way will it be a Disneyland. We have to

keep the spirit of the place," Dagul says.

"You can see the movie about Jesus' life, then

see the mountain," he says, referring to the

Mount of Beatitudes, where Jesus gave his

Sermon on the Mount, containing some of his

essential teachings. "But if we lose this

spirit, with too many lights and projectors, it

will be a catastrophe."

And bowing to protests from Orthodox Jewish

groups, the Christian partners will have to

agree not to go out and proselytize to local

Jewish Israelis.

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