JERUSALEM — Concerns about
pollution and water quality have prompted an environmental advocacy group to
call for the banning of baptisms in the lower Jordan River, where the Bible
says Jesus was baptized.
“For reasons of public
health as well as religious integrity, baptism should be banned from taking
place in the river,” said Gidon Bromberg, the Israeli director of
EcoPeace/Friends of the Earth Middle East.
Israeli authorities said July
27 that tests done on the water of the lower Jordan River show the popular site
for baptismal ceremonies at Qasr el Yahud on the West Bank meets health
ministry standards.
Bromberg, however, said the
ceremonies should not take place until pollutants are removed from the water.
The site, inside an Israeli
controlled military zone, faces another baptismal site on Jordan’s side of the
river. Both sites attract pilgrims who come to the Holy Land, and both are
claimed as the authentic site where John the Baptist baptized Jesus.
“Our call is to halt
baptisms on both sides of the river. It is exactly the same polluted water,”
said Bromberg.
Bromberg’s group says the
river suffers from “severe mismanagement,” including the diversion of 98
percent of its fresh water to Israel, Syria and Jordan, as well as the
discharge of untreated sewage and agricultural run-off.
The baptismal site on the
Israeli side of the river was closed for one day on Monday but reopened on
Tuesday, Bromberg said, while the Jordanian side was never closed; Jordan has
not responded to the environmental group’s claims.
“If the same thing were
happening to a Jewish or Muslim holy site there would be a public outcry,”
Bromberg said.