{"id":138,"date":"2006-07-19T07:35:10","date_gmt":"2006-07-19T05:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/?p=138"},"modified":"2009-12-29T14:15:03","modified_gmt":"2009-12-29T12:15:03","slug":"blogging-the-war-tourism-hit-not-decimated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/2006\/07\/blogging-the-war-tourism-hit-not-decimated\/","title":{"rendered":"Blogging the War: Tourism Hit, Not Decimated"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was posted on Jewish.com on Tuesday, July 17, 2006. The link is here<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Hotels and beds and
\nbreakfasts across the north of Israel are empty and Macaulay Culkin<\/a> and
\nhis girlfriend, Mila Kunis<\/a>, have left Israel, but many tourists,
\ncampers and birthright groups are remaining in Israel despite the war
\nraging across much of the country.To be sure, if the events of
\nthe last few days turn into a protracted conflict or if the barrage of
\nmissiles on Haifa of the past few days is not controlled, it could
\nbring about the collapse of the tourism industry in Israel, which had
\nbeen looking to a record year in 2006.<\/p>\n

“We are experienced
\npeople,” Rafi Farber, vice president of the Israel Hoteliers
\nAssociation said, “but if the fighting is not time-limited, it could
\nbring about a catastrophe.<\/p>\n

“As long as the missiles were
\nfalling in places that tourists had never heard of, it was OK,” added
\nKurt Kaufman, CEO of Genesis-Kelly Tours.<\/p>\n

Not so when Haifa
\nand Tiberius came into range \u00e2\u20ac\u201d let alone the threat that the northern
\nsuburbs of greater Tel Aviv could be hit.<\/p>\n

Most Jewish
\norganizations bringing teenagers and young adults to Israel have
\ndecided to stick it out. Groups such as the Conservative Movement’s
\nUnited Synagogue Youth and the Reform Movement’s NIFTY program have
\noverhauled their itineraries to avoid the north (cities like Sderot and
\nAshkelon in the south aren’t generally on the tour agendas), but plan
\nto go ahead as scheduled with their other tours.<\/p>\n

Three of
\nUSY’s “Classic Israel Pilgrimage” tour groups were in the north of the
\ncountry when the violence broke out; now they are all in Jerusalem. “At
\nfirst, they just canceled certain trips like going to Rosh Hanikra,”
\nsaid Stephanie Mazur, a group leader of one of the USY groups. “Now
\npretty much the rule is: nowhere north of Tel Aviv.”<\/p>\n

The Machach
\nBa’aretz program is keeping all of its campers south of Beit Shean,
\nwhich is itself just south of Tiberius. Camp director Steve Frankel
\nsaid he would follow the advice of the Ministry of Education and that
\nfor now, “there is still plenty to do in Israel and plenty of places to
\nbe.”<\/p>\n

The “Kayitz b’Kibbutz” camp at Kibbutz Shluchot, also
\nlocated near Beit Shean in the northern Jordan Valley, which appeals
\nprimarily to overseas teenage campers, is going strong and has not
\ncancelled second session, due to start in another week. USY’s NATIV and
\nOTZMA programs also have not reported any dropouts yet.<\/p>\n

One
\nprogram for overseas students that has been directly in the line of
\nfire is the Livnot U’Lehibanot program in the Old City of Safed. All of
\nits students have been moved to the group’s Jerusalem campus, along
\nwith much of its faculty. The students “left in a hurry,” a Livnot
\nspokesperson told us.<\/p>\n

Livnot founder Aharon Botzer said in
\nthat the organization’s Safed campus is fine, although “some of the
\nrockets did come close to us.” The Israel Defense Forces is now using
\nthe Livnot buildings for some of its officers since Hezbollah is
\ntargeting the army’s main base in Safed.<\/p>\n

As of Sunday,
\nbirthright was continuing to land, though flights from the former
\nSoviet Union and New York city reportedly had 25 percent of their
\nparticipants back out over the weekend (a birthright flight from
\nBudapest apparently had only a single cancellation). A birthright
\nspokesman commented that of course “groups will not go any place where
\nit is within the range of danger.”<\/p>\n

Hebrew University also said
\nthat only one of its 350 international students has decided to return
\nhome as of now. The Jerusalem-based institution will be housing 140
\nforeign students from the University of Haifa.<\/p>\n

Other
\norganizations are also trying to place displaced northerners. The
\nAssociation of Americans and Canadians in Israel (AACI) sent an email
\nnewsletter to more than 6,000 of its members asking for help to provide
\ntemporary housing for families seeking refuge.<\/p>\n

The U.K.-based
\nUnited Jewish Israel Appeal, which represents Jews from Great Britain
\nand Northern Ireland, has been raising money to buy toys for families
\nin the north and to send children to day camps in communities out of
\nrange of the rockets. UJIA has sister city relationships with several
\ncommunities in the north of Israel, including Shlomi, Merom Hagalil and
\nMa’aleh Yosef through the Jewish Agency’s Partnership 2000 campaign.<\/p>\n

Mevasseret
\nZion, a bedroom community just west of Jerusalem, has also offered to
\nhost citizens from the north. The city’s local council is working with
\nthe Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel to organize day
\ncamps for children from northern cities<\/p>\n

Will current events
\naffect aliyah? Not according to Nefesh b’Nefesh, the organization that
\nhas some seven planeloads of North Americans and French immigrating to
\nIsrael this summer. Nefesh b”Nefesh said there have been no
\ncancellations, though they did advise immigrants who intended to move
\nto the north to be housed elsewhere until the situation calms down.<\/p>\n

Several
\nconcerts and events have been postponed including the “Vaia Con Dios”
\nconcert in Haifa, and a dance festival in the northern town of Carmiel.
\nThere is also concern that the summer’s biggest rock show featuring
\noverseas talent, 80s new wave superstars Depeche Mode, set for Aug. 3,
\nmay be cancelled. The show’s promoter, Shuki Weiss, said “There is a
\nforeboding feeling in our stomachs because you can never know what is
\nreally going to happen. But the whole industry in Israel is hoping for
\nthe best.”<\/p>\n

About the only high-profile dropout from Israel due
\nto the war so far has been former child film star Macauly Culkin who
\nmade an early departure from Israel, where he was vacationing with
\ngirlfriend Mila Kunis who plays Jackie on “That 70s Show.” Is Culkin
\nstill traumatized by having been left “home alone” too many times
\nduring his hit films? Girlfriend Kunis said she wasn’t pleased with the
\ndecision. On the flight back to London, she told a flight attendant
\nthat Culkin was acting like “a drama queen.”<\/p>\n

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<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article was posted on Jewish.com on Tuesday, July 17, 2006. The link is here.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 Hotels and beds and breakfasts across the north of Israel are empty and Macaulay Culkin and his girlfriend, Mila Kunis, have left Israel, but many tourists, campers and birthright groups are remaining in Israel despite the war raging across […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,6,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1180,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions\/1180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}