Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed that 55,000 tourists visited Israel in 2018. According to the “Facebook” page of the ministry “Israel speaks Arabic”, visitors are Muslims from Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Emirates, Indonesia, Oman, Qatar, and Malaysia. It is worth mentioning that none of these countries have any official relationship with Israel. At the same time, 17,000 visitors from Egypt and Jordan came to Israel according to “Israel Speaks Arabic” Facebook Page.
Muslim tourists keep visiting Israel a fact which made the number of tourists maintain this increase ever since. Respectively, the Israeli newspaper “Haaretz” has confirmed through a published report in 2015 the rise of the tourism status where people from Indonesia, turkey, Jordan, and Malaysia are the most to visit Israel.
Jerusalem is considered to be the favorite destination for Muslim tourists, especially after a Fatwa, which is delivered by the Imam in Gulf Countries, which allows and encourages people to visit Israel. As a result, the mentioned newspaper considered this Fatwa the main reason behind this expansion of tourists.
“Haaretz” said that the average of the visit is 4 days. On one hand, visitors devote a day to only visit the old medina (old city) and perform their prayer at Al-Aqsa mosque. However, the remaining days are devoted to Bethlehem, Hebron, and Jericho. All the coming visitors enter Israel via the King Hussein Bridge on the Jordanian border, while few of them enter it through Ben Gurion Airport.
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