2023-11-03 14:05:02
(AFP, Jerusalem, 3rd) Affected by the ongoing fighting between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas, tourists in the Old City of Jerusalem have been scared away. The originally lively streets have become so deserted that their livelihoods depend on the tourism industry. Local residents suddenly lost much-needed income.
After the war has been going on for nearly four weeks, most shops in the maze-like narrow and winding commercial streets surrounding Jerusalem’s religious holy sites are still closed. The few businesses that are brave enough to open their doors are still waiting day following day. Visitors come to visit.
48-year-old Marwan Attieh is the third generation of his family to work as a Jerusalem tour guide and a souvenir shop owner. “There is no tourism here anymore,” he said. “We have families, we have children… There is no business, no income, no revenue, no way to live. If you have no money, how do you spend it?”
The walled Old City in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem contains some of the holiest sites for Christians, Jews and Muslims and has attracted pilgrims and tourists for centuries.
But since Hamas fighters stormed into Israel from Gaza on October 7, killing what Israeli officials say is at least 1,400 people and triggering an intensive Israeli bombardment of Gaza, Jerusalem has made money. The tourism industry almost completely collapsed.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where most Christians believe it was built where Jesus was crucified and buried, is now mostly empty, with the occasional priest walking around the cave-like hall. .
Pietro Mazzocco, a 31-year-old male student from an Italian seminary studying in Jerusalem, said: “This place used to be really lively, full of people praying to God and telling their difficulties. Overall, the atmosphere was strong in faith. But now it is as you see it. I saw it was completely empty, no one was there at all.”
Rachid, a 24-year-old French man, was one of the few tourists who made it to the Old City of Jerusalem. He said he was unwilling to cancel the trip because he wanted to see the actual situation with his own eyes.
Rachi entered the country by land from Israel’s neighboring Jordan earlier this week and was questioned by Israeli authorities at length during customs clearance. “It feels a bit weird, the streets are deserted,” he told AFP, adding that he was stopped several times by Israeli police following entering the country.
An unfazed Lachey said: “People on both sides will be scared. People are sensitive, they don’t know who I am or where I come from.”
Israel-Kazakhstan war burns Jerusalem’s Old City, tourism industry collapses
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