By IPS Correspondents
JERUSALEM, Sep 27 2004 (IPS)

The Israeli Tourism Authority has taken to organising high profile visits of Hollywood stars and pop divas to lure tourists to the Holy Land.

Earlier this year Hollywood actor Richard Gere arrived for a film festival, attended a seminar, had posters of his face plastered all over Israel and left with rave reviews especially from the female human rights activists.

They did not question the intentions of his visit or give him too much flak for not taking any public positions on human rights. They work on human rights every day of the year, but he was Richard Gere.

A few months later Chris Noth, Mr Big, celebrity star of the TV serial Sex and the City, was on the pages of Haaretz being whisked away by helicopter to see the sights of Israel, all paid for by the good folks at the Israeli Tourism Authority. In fact, they were even armed with statements about how much the visit would boost Israeli tourism.

Then came Madonna, now also called Esther, donning the latest outfit for Kabbalah, a system of Jewish mysticism. Her cab was mobbed by fans, resulting in her planned visit to the Old City of Jerusalem being cancelled – such is the price of fame in the Holy Land.

Fresh off the ‘Reinvention Tour’ Madonna is reportedly wearing a red thread to ward off the evil eye and refuses to play on the Sabbath. She has received rough treatment both from religious Jews and Palestinian activists questioning the intentions of her visit. A security team of about 1,000 police officers had been drafted earlier to protect her entourage of 2,000 from the Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles.

Madonna’s visit to Rachel’s Tomb particularly drew the ire of human rights activists as the separation barrier annexes the shrine and because the Palestinians are under full closure for the entire month of the Jewish high holidays.

Rachel is considered the mother of the Jewish people, and there are Biblical references to the spot where she was said to have been buried by her husband Jacob. Next to Rachel’s Tomb is Ayda refugee camp which has 5,000 Palestinian residents who are refused entry into Israel.

Her willingness to come to the West Bank with security forces and not comment on human rights issues there is particularly drawing criticism. Unlike her former husband Sean Penn who has visited Iraq and spoken out against the war, Madonna has never been one to take political positions for fear of hurting her celebrity status.

All her moves from sex goddess to Yoga diva to children’s author to British den mother to an endorser of Wesley Clark did not dim the willingness of the ‘Israeli street’ to question her newfound Kabbalah addiction, and for religious Jews to dismiss her use of Judaism as a cheap marketing ploy.

For her efforts on her five-day tour, ‘Esther’ received an ancient oil lamp and a coin from the Byzantine period from the Israeli Tourism Authority.

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