This article was first published at Christianity Today, on April 17, 2020.
For over 50 years, Jesus’ baptismal site was a casualty of war.
Now, it is a casualty of the new coronavirus.
Last week in time for Easter, the UK-based demining specialist HALO Trust group exploded in chain reaction the final 500 landmines at Israel’s Qasr al-Yahud monastery complex.
“We got the churches together, all eight different denominations, and then we got the Israelis and the Palestinians,” HALO Trust CEO James Cowan told the BBC.
“So all three major faiths, and we looked at how we could do this.”
Located six miles east of Jericho on the Jordan River, “Bethany beyond the Jordan” in 1968 was placed by Israel under military jurisdiction following the Six Day War. Fearing terrorist infiltration across the shallow riverbed, the army laid over 6,000 landmines and booby-trapped the churches.
Israel declared peace with Jordan in 1995, but the area remained closed.
In 2011, it was partially reopened, allowing access along one narrow path between the Jordan River and the Greek Orthodox St. John the Baptist Monastery.
And in 2016, HALO Trust, which works in 27 nations around the world, announced…
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Jayson Casper 