Travel is political. It may not seem like it when choosing a destination, but when we decide where to visit, and what to do when we’re there, we’re often basing those decisions on internal factors like political background or upbringing and external factors, like what parts of a country tourists are allowed to visit.
In few places is travel as political as Jerusalem, the city at the heart of three of the world’s religions, and at the center of much of the conflict that consumes Israel. Earlier this year, the Israeli tourism ministry released a map of that city which featured no Christian or Muslim sites, which draw millions each year. What’s more, the map featured a number of locations of little interest to tourists, like buildings managed by organizations focused on pushing Palestinian residents out of Jerusalem in order to allow more room for Jewish settlers.
The ministry has released a new map, which they say is to replace the old one since they ran out of stock. This new map includes more diverse tourist sites, including some of the most important religious sites for Christian or Muslim visitors, but it still isn’t “neutral.”
City of David Park, for example, is prominent on the map, but looks like it’s surrounded by empty green space. In reality the park, run by a group called Elad, which buys up Palestinian property in order to settle Jewish families there, is actually surrounded by the Palestinian neighborhood Silwan. Silwan is one of the oldest, and poorest, neighborhoods in the area, yet this map of the city seems to erase its existence.
“[The map] literally obscures the fact that the park is located in a Palestinian neighborhood,” said Betty Herschman, the director of international relations and advocacy at Ir Amin, an Israeli human rights NGO. “It not only erases their narrative, but obscures their very existence.”
Israeli Tourism Ministry spokeswoman Lydia Weitzman said the map is “only a temporary version. The tourism ministry is currently working on a new version for printing and distributing to tourists and visitors to the Old City.”
We can only hope that the next version of the Old City tourist map includes every part of Jerusalem and doesn’t make Palestinian neighborhoods disappear.