NEWS FEATURE: West Bank Baptismal Site Polluted

c. 2000 Religion News Service KASR AL YAHUD, Israeli-Occupied West Bank _ The baptismal sites on the East Bank of the Jordan River are undergoing a flurry of development. But on the Israeli-occupied West Bank of the river a traditional site visited for centuries by pilgrims remains forlorn and neglected, surrounded by high fences, military […]

c. 2000 Religion News Service

KASR AL YAHUD, Israeli-Occupied West Bank _ The baptismal sites on the East Bank of the Jordan River are undergoing a flurry of development.

But on the Israeli-occupied West Bank of the river a traditional site visited for centuries by pilgrims remains forlorn and neglected, surrounded by high fences, military outposts and a field of land mines.


Here, directly opposite Jordanian excavations on the East Bank, Orthodox Christians have traditionally celebrated their baptismal rituals, plunging into the muddy river from a tiny set of broken-down stairs, on holidays when the military grants them special access.

So forlorn is the site, and so visibly dirty is the Jordan River, which collects sewage and runoff from hundreds of miles of Jordan Valley settlement, that Western pilgrims generally opt to re-enact the baptism 100 miles upstream at the Israeli-operated “Yardenit” site near where the Sea of Galilee flows into the Jordan. The site is cleaner and commercially popular but has little historical connection to the baptism.

Recently, Israel’s West Bank military administration, which controls the Kasr Al Yahud baptismal site, developed a modest $750,000 plan for improving the tiny river access area. But midway through the millennium year, the monies for the project have yet to be allocated by the government, said Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman.

The improvements call for the reconstruction of the steps that now lead from a steep riverbank down to the river’s edge. But in order for the river to be safe for bathing, cleaner water would also have to be pumped into the polluted Jordan from somewhere upstream, Lerner said.

“We checked the water; it is indeed problematic,” Lerner said.

Technically, pilgrims are forbidden from entering the river. But many Orthodox Christians, traveling here from as far away as Russia and Greece, or as near as Palestinian Bethlehem, immerse themselves or their children anyway.

Even more popular is the practice of collecting the water in bottles and shipping it back home to be drunk as a cure for various ailments.

Israeli soldiers posted at the site typically turn a blind eye to the rituals that take place.


“Officially it is forbidden to enter the water today, and while there is no warning posted there is a gate leading to the river that is closed off,” Lerner said.

For the foreseeable future, he said, the area is destined to remain a closed military area, surrounded by minefields. In at least one nod to the millennium, however, the volume of tourists being permitted into the site has been increased. Whereas in previous years the site was opened only a few days out of the year to tourists, now 20 busloads of tourists may visit daily.

DEA END FLETCHER

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