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May 4, 2007
Striving to keep businesses alive
Tourism in northern Israel has not fully recovered since last
summer's war with Hezbollah.
RHONDA SPIVAK
Driving down the main street of Nahariya, the seaside town that
lies perilously close to Israel's border with Lebanon, I am greeted
by a large sign in English that says, "Nahariya – For
Fun Lovers." The accompanying sign in Hebrew says, "Nahariya
– For Lovers of Life" ("Leohavei hahayim").
I am caught off guard by these slogans. After all, aside from Kiryat
Shemona, Nahariya absorbed more Hezbollah rocket attacks than any
other town in Israel in last summer's war. Clearly, the town of
57,000 people is making a concerted effort to change its image from
a place of fear and terror to one of fun and pleasure. I can't help
but admire Nahariya for trying to remarket itself, even if the slogan
seems a bit over the top.
The most famous restaurant in Nahariya, Penguin, situated on Gaaton
Boulevard, the town's main street, is open all of the time. It was
the only restaurant in Nahariya that was open throughout every single
day of last summer's war. "The first Katyusha fell right across
the street from us, and another one fell in the parking lot right
behind us," said our young waitress. "I worked here in
this restaurant, even though there were at least 20 sirens a day,
with Katyusha rockets falling everywhere around us. It was scary,
but we stayed open out of principle. We were not going to let Hezbollah
shut us down. After the first week of the war, practically everybody
in town fled. But Israeli and foreign journalists and army personnel
came and ate here. Nahariya is my home – where else was I going
to go?"
Penguin, which started as a little place for ice cream and watermelon,
is not just a restaurant but a Nahariya landmark. It was founded
in 1940 by a German Jew, Otto Oppenheimer, and then run by his sons,
Hans and Ernest Oppenheimer. "The restaurant is named Penguin
because penguins live in the North Pole and Nahariya was considered
the North Pole of Israel," explained Amir Oppenheimer, a fourth
generation family member who now works at the restaurant. "Also,
at the time, Penguin books were very popular in Germany."
Amir's father, Ilan Oppenheimer, runs Penguin. He made the decision
to keep the restaurant open during the war – even cancelling
a trip abroad to make the point that no one could force him to close.
He became one of the unsung heroes of this last war, a resilient
Israeli civilian who stood his ground, even though the Israeli government
had abandoned the homefront, leaving it completely unprepared. Business
at Penguin since the conflict has been good, probably because the
Israeli people have shown their appreciation for his patriotism
by frequenting the establishment.
Although Nahariya was badly damaged in the summer, remarkably, there
are no visible signs of this. The buildings have all been repaired
and the streets are clean and well-kept. It's impossible to imagine
that Nahariya was a ghost town a short time ago. And yet, things
are not really back to normal.
"Foreign tourists are mostly coming to Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem,
Netanya and the centre of the country, but they aren't coming up
here," said the owner of La Crêpe Jacob, on Nahariya's
Weizman Street. He made crêpes for people in bomb shelters
during the war, but fled himself after two weeks, with his grandchildren.
"My business has suffered since the war," he said. "There's
always talk about the possibility of another war soon, so most tourists
still aren't coming here."
On Kibbutz Lochamei Hagetaot (the Ghetto Fighters), just
outside of Acre, the assessment is the same. "Tourism is still
low," said the woman who runs the kibbutz bed and breakfast.
"We filled up for Passover, but it was all internal tourism
from Israelis. There are very few foreign tourists. Tourism is down
in the whole country, but we really feel it here."
Founded in 1949, this kibbutz is a symbol of the miracle of the
birth of Israel, the rise of the Jewish state out of the ashes of
the Holocaust. All of the kibbutz founders were fighters from the
Warsaw Ghetto and Holocaust survivors, who chose to settle up north
to help hold down Israel's borders. Most people left the kibbutz
for a week or two during last summer's conflict, but then came back.
The day after Passover ends, when all of the Israelis return to
work, my family and our friends are the only guests left at this
beautiful place. The kibbutz puts out the complete spread for breakfast,
but there is no one aside from us to eat it.
It's the same thing when we visit Rosh Hanikra, the grottos on the
border with Lebanon. There are lots of Israelis at the site, but
I don't see too many foreigners.
American and British Jews seem to be the favorite foreign tourists
for a number of shopkeepers I encounter. In Netanya, the Israeli
owner of a Judaica store observed, "To my great regret, we
don't get enough American and British Jewish tourists here. It's
mostly French Jews and even when they are wealthy, they are very
cheap. If a French Jew walked in here and saw a kippah he liked,
he wouldn't just buy it. He'd come back with his wife, his son,
his mother, his friend and his dog before he was actually willing
to decide to purchase it. Ask the other shopkeepers around here
– if I try to sell a greeting card here and a French Jew sees
another store selling a different greeting card for 20 agurot (approximately
five cents) cheaper, they'll walk across the street to buy the other
card. So I stopped carrying greeting cards."
Israeli media reported that the number of foreign tourists coming
to Israel for Passover this year was 12.5 per cent lower than Passover
2006. In Eilat, many hotels were full over Passover due to Israeli
families vacationing there, not foreign tourists. Israeli media
reported a 39 per cent drop in the number of overnight stays in
Eilat this February, compared to February 2006. If things don't
start to improve, then Eilat will have to start competing against
Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv for internal Israeli tourism.
Yet I never underestimate the resilience of Israel. In 2002, 30
people were killed and 140 injured in a Hamas suicide bombing at
Netanya's Park Hotel while they were in the midst of a Passover
seder. This Passover, I went to the Park Hotel. "We're almost
completely booked over Passover this year," the hotel clerk
at the front desk told me.
Five years ago, how many people would have predicted that?
Rhonda Spivak is a freelance writer who divides her time
between Winnipeg and Netanya, Israel.
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