Uzi Landau has served in the Israeli cabinet in a number of roles over the years, including as minister of internal security, and minister of energy and water. As a member of the Yisrael Beitenu party, he currently serves as the country’s minister of tourism. Landau, who was a member of the Likud party for many years, was in Toronto last month where he met with local Jewish community leaders at a breakfast organized by the Israel Government Tourist Office jointly with the Consulate General of Israel. He spoke with The CJN.
What is the purpose of your trip to Toronto?
The purpose of the trip is to boost up tourism, to put it back on the normal trend of a constant increase. That used to be the trend over the past few years, and it was disrupted during the times of the terror activities and the shelling and launching of rockets from Gaza by the Hamas terror organization.
This has always affected us. What comes out as a perception for those who see the BBC or CNN is that Israel is a war zone – that people are shooting on street corners. We want to reconnect to our base communities, people who will understand that Israel is safe. That the perception is wrong.
Second, we think it would be good to show solidarity against the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) campaign abroad. Anti-Semitism is on the increase.
This meeting today is to call on this informed Jewish community to go on solidarity missions, to go on vacations combined with a sense of purpose, to come to Israel to bring the Jewish community to stand up with the Jewish state.
Travel to Israel dropped after Operation Protective Edge. How badly has tourism been affected?
On the average, there has been a decrease, since July, of between 20 and 30 per cent, give or take in different countries. Interestingly, from the United States, it continues to go up. I was quite surprised by that.
Again, we do see a reaction by people that’s normal, which makes sense. Why should we go to a place that is perceived to be unsafe? What I want to say is that once people come, leaders of the community, writers in newspapers, TV stars and others who have many followers on Twitter and Facebook, if they come, they can go safely from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to the Dead Sea. They can float in the Dead Sea. They can walk 24 hours a day in Tel Aviv, go to restaurants, culinary centres, boutique wineries, go to art shops and jewelry shops in Jaffa. People feel safe.
In Israel, parents send even their first graders, unescorted, to school. That’s what’s happening in our country.
If the numbers from the United States are not down, where have you noticed a drop off?
Much of the loss was in western Europe.
Did the synagogue attack in Jerusalem contribute to the drop in tourism?
Not this time. But if such things continue, obviously it will have some effect. Until now, over the past couple of months after Operation Protective Edge, despite all the extremists who have tried to add terror activities in Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem, even with all the problems we had, Jerusalem is a safe place. The only problem we had was with perception, because when you get this event and people zoom in on the area of killings, you get the feeling that everything is like that.
Naomi Shemer, a great poet, said “Thank God the BBC weren’t operating with their cameras in the battle between David and Goliath. If they were, the camera would zoom on the forehead of Goliath, with the stone sunk deep in his forehead, and until today, everybody would be sure that David was the villain and that poor Goliath was killed.”
There were some rockets that landed near Ben-Gurion International Airport during Operation Protective Edge. Did that affect tourism to Israel?
It did. The [rockets] didn’t hit the area of Ben-Gurion International Airport. The airport continued to be protected, and it’s the safest in the world. What made the problem was the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) directive to all American airlines to ban their flights to Israel. It was difficult for me to understand the source for that. The fact of the matter is that the FAA itself backtracked on its decision within 36 hours and all the major airlines that discontinued their flights came back to fly.
May I add that British Airways, Iberia, Aeroflot, Ukrainian International Airline continued to fly. Of course El Al continued to fly. It is our assumption that this decision caused many people to cancel their reservations.
Was tourism a growing industry before Operation Protective Edge?
Absolutely. Until July, for the third consecutive year, tourism was on a constant increase. Until July, it was eight per cent higher compared to [the same period in] 2013. That was again a record figure compared to 2012. Now we’re trying to get back on track.
How has that drop in the number of visitors affected the Israeli economy overall?
In our assessment, it cost us about two billion Israeli shekels, which is roughly $600 million American dollars. And what we’re now trying to do is invigorate tourism towards the end of winter and spring.
Can you point to a drop in employment or less tax revenue for the Israeli government as a result of this drop in tourism?
It’s difficult for me to say that. This time, unlike on previous occasions, the war in Lebanon, things that took place in the past, the government arrived at a resolution that supports this industry with a figure of half a billion Israeli shekels. This is extraordinary. In previous times, it was about one-third of that. Our industry has to continue and function until it again will start to pick up. We hope it will be soon.
Is the situation today worse for the tourism industry than it was after the war in Lebanon or other Gaza wars?
No. There were models, characteristics that took place after the war in Lebanon (2006) and Operation Pillar of Defence (2012). We believe it will be similar to Pillar of Defence. It took six to eight months before the industry came back and functioned normally.
Has the BDS campaign had much of an impact?
I don’t think economically it has had much of an impact. The problem with the BDS is that it makes legitimate the very debate whether the Jewish People has a right to their home. Do you know of any other nation in the world that is having this kind of a debate? Have you heard whether or not Canada has a right to exist? Does the United States have a right to exist? Is France a legitimate country? Why do you raise this issue about us?
Obviously, for us, this is done to undermine the right of the Jewish People to have a state of its own, like any other normal country in the world. This is what underlies all the BDS, these are old anti-Semitic sentiments that are surfacing under the pretext of what Israel does.
Who will you be meeting other than the Jewish community?
With Christian communities too. We had a meeting yesterday with Pastor Rondo Thomas [of the Toronto Christian Centre]. We’re going to meet tonight with Christian leaders, including Thomas Cardinal Collins of Toronto. By the way, the safest place for an Arab in the Middle East today is in Israel. When it comes to Christians, they are the minority that suffers the most in the Middle East. There are dwindling numbers in Egypt, Lebanon – you name it. In Israel, the number of Christians is on the increase. And you know why? Because Israel is a democracy and we are proud to preserve all the rights of our minorities.
Has the number of people coming from Canada remained stable? Is that why you’re visiting the Christian communities, because they’ve stopped coming?
I’m coming to [see] everybody. I also speak to people, and they tell me there has been a problem with the packages and reservations made for the future. Which means people are taking their time, they are looking around and seeing if it’s safe to go. We do bring people to Israel to see that it is safe.
Do you have a marketing budget for Canada?
We’re going to focus our marketing on our base groups first. We are going to speak to those who have in the past been very friendly to Israel and from there, we are going to continue and see how we reach out to new communities.
Now, and for the last few years, there has been a trend of FITs, free independent travellers, who already have different foci than they used to have. But we are focusing on our base communities for now. [Later] we will extend our efforts to new communities.
People say that the costs of accommodations in Israel are too high, especially now when hotels are not full. What can the government of Israel do about that?
The government of Israel is not going to intervene in the market. We are an open economy. But I guess when tourism comes down, then this will bring down prices. When tourism starts again the prices will come up. But rooms today are empty and people can find today a room in a hotel that is suitable to their needs.