Solomon2
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Over 250,000 tourists from Arab countries visited Israel from 2009
Most of the tourists came from countries who do not maintain diplomatic ties with Israel
November 17th 2014
Over a quarter million of Muslim and Arab tourists have visited Israel since 2009, with a majority of them coming from countries which have no diplomatic ties with Jerusalem, Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth revealed Sunday, citing a report by the Population and Immigration Authority.
Nearly a half of those – 124,719 tourists – came from Indonesia, 23,483 from Malaysia, 38 from Saudi Arabia, 168 from the United Arab Emirates and 147 from Qatar and Oman. Almost 100,000 came from countries which maintain diplomatic relations with Israel: 81,000 from Jordan and 13,333 from Egypt.
Almost all of the tourists arrived in the country for religious reasons, the report said, visiting and praying at the holy places in Jerusalem. However, many also visit Palestinian relatives, seek medical treatment or do business and shopping.
In almost all cases, major increases in the number of visiting tourists can be seen over the reported time period. To illustrate the point, the number of tourists from Indonesia had more than tripled since 2009 (29,517 compared to 9,442); the number of Egyptian and Moroccan tourists had roughly quadrupled (4,368 compared to 1,018 and 2,239 compared to 658, respectively).
Last month, Kuwait announced that its citizens will be able to visit Jerusalem on a package tour that includes prayers at the Temple Mount and shopping in the Palestinian Authority.
In advance of the tours, Kuwait's Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister made an unofficial trip to pray in Jerusalem a month ago, during a landmark visit to the PA – the first by a ranking Kuwaiti official to the West Bank since 1967.
In an interview with the Kuwaiti daily al-Qabas, the head of the Holidays Office at Kuwait Airways Corporation, Khalaf Al-Mana, stressed that the tours do not constitute Kuwaiti recognition of Israel or normalization of ties with the Jewish state.
Nonetheless, the tourists go through the Israeli border crossing from Jordan to Israel and through an Israeli military checkpoint from the West Bank into Jerusalem. The tourists' passports, however, are not stamped by Israel.