A consortium of American Christian groups has announced plans to build a Holy Land theme park by Galilee, where Jesus walked on water and performed the miracle of feeding 5,000 people with just five loaves of bread and two fish.
The Christian groups, led by television evangelist, are hoping to strike a deal with the Israeli ministry of tourism within the coming months following ongoing negotiations for the piece of land, reports The Guardian.Around 1 million more tourists are expected to visit Israel as a result of the project, if the go-ahead is given, with a deal likely to bring about a strong political alliance between the Israeli rightwing and the American Christian right.
Not all Israelis have welcomed the alliance, however, with some fearing that the evangelicals are more interested in converting the Jews to Christianity than supporting Israel.
Spokesman for the Israeli ministry of tourism, Jonathan Pulik, highlighted the importance of the Christian market for Israel’s tourism industry.
"We would like to give them more of a reason to come here,” said Pulik. “We would be willing to lease the land to them free of charge and they would finance the construction."
The provisional name for the park is the Galilee World Heritage Park which will cover nearly 50 hectares (125 acres) north-east of the Mount of the Beatitudes where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount, and Capernaum which known as the town of Jesus in the Bible.The plans for the Park include a garden and nature park, an auditorium, a Holy Land exhibition, outdoor amphitheatres, information centre and a media studio.
The total cost of the project is estimated to be around $48million or (£28m), with the project expected to bring in large numbers of jobs to the area, noted Mr Pulik.
In a statement, Mr Robertson said he was “fully cooperating” with the project but added that no deal had been formalised.
He said he was thrilled that “there will be a place in the Galilee where evangelical Christians from all over the world can come to celebrate the actual place where Jesus Christ lived and taught”.
The Sea of Galilee is home to a number of Christian sites, as well as a Church of Scotland hotel and church in Tiberias, the main town in the area.
A large part of the Sea of Galilee was taken over by Israel from Syria in 1967, with the two countries still officially in a state of war. Syria has insisted that the return of the Golan heights and the Galilee shore is a prerequisite for peace.
Project coordinator Uri Dagul said, however, that these land disputes would be settled within a few weeks which would allow the Israeli government and the Christian communities, which are primarily American evangelical churches, to agree the final details.
