TOURISM MINISTER STAS MISEZHNIKOV ON A WORKING VISIT IN THE USA: “ALL COMMUNITY LEADERS IN THE STATES ARE WILLING TO PROMOTE TOURISM TO ISRAEL AND I AM SURE THAT THIS COOPERATION WILL PRODUCE ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE NEAR FUTURE.”

A special task force, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov, was established earlier this week within the framework of the annual Christians United for Israel (CUFI) summit held in Washington DC. This new task force, led by Christian Evangelical leader and CUFI Chairman Pastor John Hagee will deal with all aspects relating to the connection between Israel and the Evangelical community. An annual task force conference will take place in Israel and a conference call between the Prime Minister, Tourism Minister and Pastor Hagee will take place every three months to discuss key issues.

4000 people participated in the event, which took place on Tuesday, including Senator Joe Lieberman, Israel Ambassador to the US Michael Oren and senior figures from the US Evangelical movement. Pastor Hagee stressed the importance of supporting Israel and called on the 80 million faithful in the States to visit Israel as an act of solidarity and support.

During his working visit to the States, the Tourism Minister met with senior Catholic media personnel in order to encourage tourism content on these channels. In a meeting Minister Misezhnikov held Tuesday with the Archbishop of New York Timothy M. Dolan, it was agreed that the US Catholic Church leadership would hold a special conference in Israel in 2010 with the objective of developing special programs and tour packages for the Catholic community living in the States. 40 Catholic leaders are expected to participate in the first conference.

The Tourism Minister also met with about 30 Jewish community leaders. During the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, led by Executive Vice Chairman Malcolm Hoenlein, the Minister asked the community leaders to support Israel and encourage tourism to the country particularly during the global economic crisis. The Minister stressed that tourism is an important lever for economic growth in these times.

Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov: “The USA was and will remain Israel’s number one source country for incoming tourism. The segmented, focused and intensive marketing activities of the Tourism Ministry will lead to a slowing down of the decrease in tourism and a return to an increase in incoming tourism next year. There is great willingness among the leaders of the various communities in the States to promote tourism to Israel and I am sure that this cooperation will produce achievements in the near future.”

(Courtesy of Israel Ministry of Tourism)
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July 13, 2009

MINISTER OF TOURISM STAS MISEZHNIKOV:

THE TOURISM MINISTRY WILL ALLOCATE 150 MILLION SHEKEL IN 2009-2010 TO PROMOTE TOURISM FROM THE USA AND TO POSITION ISRAEL AS A PREFERRED TOURISM DESTINATION

TOURISM MINISTER AND MINISTRY DIRECTOR-GENERAL WILL LEAVE THURSDAY ON THEIR FIRST WORKING VISIT TO THE USA

IN ORDER TO STRENGTHEN TOURIST TRAFFIC TO ISRAEL

Minister of Tourism Stas Misezhnikov and Ministry Director-General Noaz Bar Nir will leave Thursday (16.7.09) for a working visit to North America, accompanied by representatives from the ministry. The purpose of the visit is to strengthen Jewish tourism, as well as promoting Christian-Evangelical tourism from the USA to Israel, while positioning Israel as a preferred tourism destination.

During the 10 day visit which will include New York, Washington and California, the Minister will meet with leaders, opinion-makers and senior media personnel in the Evangelical community, including John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel, and leaders of the Catholic community such as Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop of New York, with whom he will discuss ways of leveraging the recent visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Israel. The delegation will also meet with leaders of the Jewish community, including, among others, Executive Vice Chairman Malcolm Hoenlein and other members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and the President of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles John Fishel.

Minister of Tourism Stas Misezhnikov: "The government's support of the tourism industry and the increase in the marketing budget to an unprecedented half a billion shekel for the next two years allows an allocation of 150 million shekel to strengthen and promote tourism from North America which has been affected by the global economic crisis. There is a large unfulfilled potential in Evangelical tourism and the Tourism Ministry will work to expose the American public to the Israeli tourism product over the next few years, with an emphasis on Israel's religious, historical and archeological elements." The minister stressed that tourism from North America will remain at the top of the ministry's priorities.

During the visit, the minister and ministry representatives will meet with the managers of the Israel Government Tourist Offices in North America and Canada in order to focus their activities on the new work program outlined by the minister, which is based on positioning Israel as the Holy Land with Jerusalem at its center. These activities will be promoted with a 70 million shekel campaign in 2009 (80 million shekel for 2010).

North America remains the largest source country of incoming tourism to Israel. In 2008, 700,000 tourists visited from the USA (16% more than 2007). From January-May 2009, 235,000 tourists have visited from North America (10% less than the same period last year - 291,000).

(Courtesy of Israel Ministry of Tourism)
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July 9, 2009

THE LOWEST PLACE ON EARTH MOVES UP IN THE

NEW 7 WONDERS OF NATURE COMPETITION

TOURISM MINISTER STAS MISEZHNIKOV: THE TOURISM MINISTRY WILL LEAD THE INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR THE DEAD SEA TO BE SELECTED AS ONE OF THE COMPETITION WINNERS VIA ITS MARKETING NETWORK AND WEBSITES,

WHILE EMPHASIZING THE DEAD SEA’S UNIQUE ATTRIBUTES

AND PROMOTING TOURISM TO THE AREA

The Dead Sea, the lowest place on earth, confirmed its place for consideration in the next stage of the international competition to grade the seven natural wonders of the world after the Tourism Ministries of Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority individually signed the official supporting papers for its candidacy.  

Thanks to an initiative of the Megillot Dead Sea Regional Council, the Dead Sea was registered as a candidate for the competition about a year ago. It was thanks to the activities last week of the Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov and Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai, head of the Civil Administration with the Palestinian Authority that the Dead Sea’s candidacy in the list of 77 sites was finally approved.

Voting for the 77 nominees finished at midnight on 7 July and voting for the next round will begin on 22 July. Due to level of interest generated by the competition, the organizers of the New 7 Wonders of Nature competition will increase the number of sites qualifying for the next stage from 21 to 28 (to be selected from the top 77 nominees). The competition organizers expect over a billion people from around the world to participate in the online voting, which will continue into 2011, when the finalists by categories will be announced..

Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov announced that, over the next 2 years, the Tourism Ministry will lead the campaign for the Dead Sea to be selected as one of the winners in the contest, via its 14 representative offices around the world, its websites in 11 languages and focused marketing activities. In the framework of the campaign, the ministry will emphasize the unique attributes of the Dead Sea and promote tourism to the area. With the Dead Sea’s qualification for the next stage of the competition on 22 July, voting can take place via the Ministry website, www.goisrael.com.

The list of 28 finalists will be published by the organizers on the website www.new7wonders.com  on 21 July at 12:07 (Greenwich Mean time), from which time voting will begin for the final stage, both online and via mobile phones.

The New 7 Wonders of Nature competition was launched in 2007 with about 440 sites from 220 countries (more than those competing in the Olympics). The Megillot Dead Sea Regional Council proposed the candidacy of the Dead Sea for the competition in order to promote tourism to the region and raise public awareness around the world of the problems facing the sea, which has lost about one meter in height every year for the past 30 years, mainly from the effects of restricting the flow of the River Jordan at the Degania Dam.

Other contenders for the title of New 7 Wonder of Nature include the Great Barrier Reef, the Grand Canyon, the Galapagos Islands, Niagara Falls, Kilimanjaro Mountains, the Black Forest, the Maldives Islands and many more in seven different categories.

(Courtesy of Israel Ministry of Tourism)
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July 6, 2009

A Large Stone Quarry from the End of the Second Temple Period was Exposed in Excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is Conducting on Shmuel HaNavi Street in Jerusalem

Dr. Ofer Sion, the excavation director, estimates, “The stones that were quarried here were used by Herod to build the walls of the Temple”.

An ancient quarry, c. 1 dunam in area and dating to the end of the Second Temple period (c. 2,030 years old), was uncovered in excavations being conducted on Shmuel HaNavi Street in Jerusalem, under the direction of Dr. Ofer Sion and Yehuda Rapuano of the Israel Antiquities Authority, prior to the construction of residential buildings.

Dr. Ofer Sion, the excavation director on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, believes, “The immense size of the stones (maximum dimensions: length 3 m, width 2 m, height 2 m) indicates it was highly likely that the large stones that were quarried at the site were destined for use in the construction of Herod’s magnificent projects in Jerusalem, including the Temple walls. It seems that a vast number of workers labored in the quarry where various size stones were produced: first they quarried small stones and when the bedrock surface was made level they hewed the large stones. The stones were quarried by creating wide detachment channels that were marked by means of a chisel which weighed c. 2.5 kilograms. After the channels were formed the stones were severed from the bedrock using hammers and chisels”.

“We know from historical sources that in order to build the Temple and other projects which Herod constructed, such as his palace, hundreds of thousands of various size stones were required – most of them weighing between two and five tons each”, said Dr. Sion.

“The dimensions of the stones that were produced in the quarry that was revealed are suitable for the Temple walls. The large section that was exposed is actually a small part of an enormous series of quarries that was spread across the entire slope – from the Musrara Quarter to the Sanhedria Quarter. The massive quarrying effort, on the order of hundreds of thousands of stones, lowered the topography of Jerusalem in the vicinity of the Old City. Today, with the exposure of this quarry, the intensity of the building projects as described in the historical sources can be proven: Flavius Josephus wrote that before Herod built the Temple he prepared the infrastructure for it: the quarrying of the Temple’s stones lasted eight whole years. The Temple itself was built in a relatively short period of time of two years. With the exposure of the quarries in Sanhedria and Ramat Shlomo, it is clear that Herod began quarrying closest to the Temple and worked away from it: first he exploited the stone on the nearby ridges and subsequently he moved on to quarry in more distant regions”.

According to Dr. Sion, “In those days the world of hi-tech focused on quarrying, removing and transporting stones. Historical sources record that Herod trained more than 10,000 people to be involved in this work: they prepared suitable transportation routes and then moved the huge stones in a variety of ways – on rolling wooden fixtures that were drawn by camels, in pieces on carriages, etc.

Among the artifacts that were discovered in the excavation on Shmuel HaNaiv Street were metal plates (referred to in the Talmud as ‘cheeks’) that were used as fulcrums to severe the stones from the bedrock, and coins and pottery sherds that date to the end of the Second Temple period (the first century BCE).

(Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority Spokesperson)
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July 1, 2009

Lod mosaic to be re-exposed

The 1,700 year old mosaic floor, one of the most amazing and largest in Israel, is being exposed by the Israel Antiquities Authority, in cooperation with the Municipality of Lod and residents of the city.

Thirteen years after one of the most beautiful mosaics ever to be seen in the country was covered over, the Israel Antiquities Authority, in cooperation with the municipality of Lod and its residents, is beginning an archaeological excavation that will re-expose the mosaic, once and for all.

Next weekend (July 9-11, 2009), the site of the mosaic will be open to the general public.The conservation work done to the mosaic can be viewed in a live broadcast on the IAA website.

The 1,700 year old mosaic floor, which is one of the most magnificent and largest mosaics ever revealed in Israel, was first uncovered in the city of Lod in 1996. The mosaic is a real archaeological gem and extraordinarily well-preserved. It covers an area of approximately 180 square meters and is composed of colored carpets that depict in detail mammals, birds, fish, a variety of flora and the sailing and merchant ships that were used at the time. The purpose of the building in which the mosaic floor was placed is not known.

This impressive discovery, the product of an excavation that was directed by archaeologist Miriam Avissar, on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority prior to the widening of Ha-Halutz Street by the municipality of Lod, caused a wave of excitement in Israel. The discovery was widely reported in the media and tens of thousands of visitors  to the site were amazed. At the end of the excavation, the mosaic floor was covered in order to protect it from the damages caused by man and time until funding is available and a decision as to how to best present it to the public is made.

A recent, highly generous gift from the Leon Levy Foundation and Shelby White, Chairman of the Friends of the Israel Antiquities Authority, will enable the IAA to excavate, conserve and establish the Lod Mosaic Archaeological Center on the site.

The conservation and development of the site will boost tourism and help change the image of the city. The municipality, in conjunction with the Israel Antiquities Authority, plans to integrate it into a tourism circuit that will include a number of historic sites in the city.

Prior to the announcement of the start of work in the area, constructive discussions took place between the residents of Lod, the municipality and the Israel Antiquities Authority. Because of the need to conserve it, the mosaic must be removed from the area and taken to the laboratories of the Israel Antiquities Authority where the conservation work will be carried out. Consequently, some residents of Lod were anxious that the mosaic would not be returned to its site. The Director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Mr. Shuka Dorfman, promised the residents that the work of exposing the mosaic will be done in complete cooperation with the public, and that the mosaic will be returned to its original location and the place will be prepared as an archaeological center for the benefit of the general public and the many tourists that are expected to visit the site.

The conservation and development work are scheduled to take approximately two years. During that period, and because of the rarity and exceptional quality of the find, a section of the mosaic will be sent on exhibit to the prestigious Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. During this time the planning and implementation work will carried out at the site in Lod, at the end of which the mosaic will be returned to its permanent home and the site will be opened to the public.

(Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority and MFA Newsletter)