But Israel's charity comes at a high price: Palestinians must jettison their national ambitions. The tourists can visit but Palestinians must first concede that these are Israeli sites.
A similar message is directed at the tourists. Christian pilgrims with little understanding of the Palestinians' long history of dispossession are being encouraged to explore Greater Israel oblivious to which side of the Green Line they are on. The distinction between Nazareth and Bethlehem, in Israel and the occupied West Bank, respectively, is increasingly blurred.
Palestinians themselves are all but invisible. The video at no point mentions that they even live in "Judea and Samaria." It shows buildings, not people.
This rebranding process is already well underway in Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in violation of international law decades ago. Tourism maps are littered with Jewish settler sites, marked as prominently as important holy places such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Al Aqsa mosque. The latter is identified only by Temple Mount.
But in truth the tourism video is even less generous than it appears. Israel controls all entry into the West Bank, meaning that it is impossible for pilgrims to visit without contributing to the Israeli economy.
Israel announced in September a record budget for promoting tourism, a mainstay of its economy. The vast majority of visitors stay in Israeli hotels, are transported in Israeli coaches, eat in Israeli restaurants, visit Israeli gift shops to buy Israeli souvenirs using Israeli money.
In fact, most of the sites visited in the West Bank are controlled by Israel -- from the Dead Sea and Hebron's Ibrahimi Mosque to Herod's acropolis near Bethlehem and the Baptism site on the River Jordan.
Tourists absorb the Palestinian presence only as a distant menace, highlighted by the bright red traffic signs warning that it is "dangerous to your lives" to stray from major roads. Pilgrims dart into Bethlehem for a brief tour of the Church of the Nativity, passing through a checkpoint in the oppressive, prison-like wall, hinting that Israel has good reason to treat Palestinians like felons.
If COGAT really wanted to change that impression, and help the Palestinian economy, it would encourage tourists to stay in Palestinian cities such as Hebron, Nablus, Ramallah and Jericho. And meet actual Palestinians.
Last week the Israeli parliament passed the first reading of a so-called legalization bill, which will retroactively authorize the settlers' theft of land and property privately owned by Palestinians in the West Bank. The legislation extends to the settlers' criminal acts the same legal protection as the state's theft of Palestinian land.
The privatization of the looting of Palestinian territory is intimately connected to the authorities' latest moves to plunder Palestine's tourism economy. The overarching goal in both is the "creeping annexation" of the Palestinians' homeland. Israel is ready to use any and every means at its disposal.
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