Pilgrims at Qaser al-Yahud. Pictures by the HALO Trust.

Clearing the Way at Christ's Baptismal Site

Monday March 27 2017

Tim Porter highlights a project restoring safe access to a pilgrimage site on the River Jordan.

Scottish-based charity the HALO Trust has secured agreement from the Israeli and Palestinian authorities to remove landmines laid fifty years ago at Qaser al-Yahud, the site of the Baptism of Christ, on the western bank of the River Jordan.

Qaser al-Yahud is the third most holy place in Christianity and a site of great historical importance. It is also currently inside a restricted military zone. Clearance of mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) at the site for the first time since 1967 is offering a unique opportunity to promote inter-faith reconciliation, supporting the eight Christian Churches with ruined chapels on the land through action that is practical and highly visible.

Opening the site up fully will bring about an increase in the numbers of visiting pilgrims, worshippers and tourists who will contribute to the economy of nearby Jericho and the Jordan Valley. At the same time the clearance will resonate with the hugely popular global campaign to rid the world of landmines.

Qaser al-Yahud (‘Castle of The Jews’) lies on the western bank of the Jordan River where it is believed John the Baptist baptised Jesus, and which Christian tradition therefore holds to be his ‘spiritual birthplace’. There are records of monasteries and churches being constructed on the site from 400AD, and in the 1930s during the time of the British Mandate land was sold to the Roman Catholic Church and seven Eastern Orthodox denominations. These eight Christian orders variously built churches and chapels inside their compounds, and the site remained a place of pilgrimage and worship until after the 1967 war when the area became a restricted military zone laid with anti-tank mines. The church buildings are now in a state of decay, with military records indicating the possibility of booby-traps.

Ahead of the visit of Pope John Paul II to the site in 2000, mine clearance was carried out to allow safe access to a narrow section of the western river bank. It was subsequently further improved with landscaping on the water’s edge, covered seating for pilgrims and a coach parking area with facilities. This section was fully opened to pilgrims in 2011 and visitors exceeded 400,000 in 2016. The rest of the site, including all the church compounds, remains off limits as part of the restricted military zone, fenced and marked as a minefield with controlled access only along a single unsealed road.

The minefield records passed to HALO break down the land to be cleared on the site outside the church compounds into eleven separate areas, all of which have a potential UXO threat from fired and undetonated ordnance. Six of these areas contain 2,600 M15 anti-tank mines laid at 2m intervals in multiple lines. The land and buildings inside the eight church compounds are seeded with anti-personnel mines and booby traps. In total, the land to be cleared is over 986,000 square metres, equal to 138 football pitches.

For HALO, the challenges include developing a workable technical solution for marking and safely detonating such a large volume of anti-tank mines whose fuses have become sensitive and unstable over five decades. And co-ordination of the plan will require agreement from the Israeli military, the national Park Authority who oversee the site and the Jordanian Authorities on the eastern side of the river. The latter two will be under pressure to minimise disruption to opening hours for the hundreds of visitors expected throughout 2017. There are certainly aspects of the job that are new to HALO, given the organisation is more usually to be found away from the public eye, working among remote mine impacted communities in Asia and Africa.

Humanitarian mine clearance operations are traditionally government funded and under-pinned by international foreign aid policy. But Qaser al-Yahud, with its obvious religious significance and geographical prominence, attracts attention of a different order. In May 2016, HALO orchestrated a major media drive to publicise the project, and began a worldwide campaign to raise the necessary funds. In any initiative to secure funding from private sources the challenge always lies in initiation. Experience shows that once funds start to accumulate and work begins, matched funds will follow. HALO is reaching out to Christian leaders, churches and congregations across the United States, Europe and Asia in order to secure the funds.

Once clearance is complete and the land formally handed over, the churches, aided by the Israeli Park Authority and with the blessing of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah intend to raise the funds to re-build their compound buildings; in time members of these orders and worshippers will once again be able to celebrate and pray in their own chapels.

Tim Porter is Regional Director of the HALO Trust

For more information or to support this work, visit the HALO Trust website, or email amy.currin@halotrust.org

This feature first appeared in April's Life and Work magazine. Subscribe here.