WILLACY: Jerusalems a long way, three hundred kilometres from the Israel/Lebanon border and the fighting there, but close enough to kill the tourist trade. Whereas earlier in the summer, the city was filled with religious tourists. For many American Christians, their visit here brings them closer to God. Perhaps a little too close.
Each year dozens are diagnosed with Jerusalem Syndrome. Some believe theyre the Messiah, others are simply waiting for Armageddon, but most are ordinary God fearing Americans whove come to Israel on a spiritual and political pilgrimage.
The holy city of Jerusalem is a magnet for foreign pilgrims, Christians seeking redemption. Many of those following in the footsteps of Christ are Americans. These two, Rob and Bob, are from California.
BOB: Thats right. He and I are Roman soldiers and he beats him and pulls, yeah he pulls him and I beat him. You know we reverse that role sometimes and Jesus Christ is around here somewhere.
ROB: Yeah hes over there.
BOB: Hes over there.
WILLACY: Jesus, also known as Taulli, is an industrial tools salesman from New Orleans.
TAULLI: Its an honour that I cant even describe. Just do it to praise Him.
WILLACY: Here hes channelling the spirit of Jesus and Jerusalem.
TAULLI: You know its almost . just feel the spirit coming through me. So powerful. I dont . I dont even feel like myself.
WILLACY: These Christians follow the very route its claimed Jesus took to His crucifixion, along the Via Dolorosa and the fourteen Stations of the Cross. Other American Christians come to Israel to see where and hear how the world will come to an end.
GARY FRAZIER: [To group on bus] This is what God can do in the lives of people who will worship Him and Him alone.
WILLACY: Gary Frazier, a self-styled specialist in biblical prophecy is the founder of the Texas based Discovery Ministries.
GARY FRAZIER: [To group on bus] I want to tell you that you have arrived in the most important place in all of the earth. Israel today exists as a miracle of God.
WILLACY: Every year Gary Frazier organises more than two hundred tour groups to Israel.
This is Megiddo, an ancient fortified city, which has seen some of historys bloodiest battles. The Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Israelites and Romans have all fought and died here, but Christians believe this will be the site of humanitys final battle because Megiddo is known by another name Armageddon.
According to the Book of Revelations, this hill will be the scene of an apocalyptic clash between the armies of Christ and Satan, a battle leading to the end of days.
GARY FRAZIER: [To group at site] I believe with all of my heart that were living in the last of the last days, that were on the threshold of the coming of Christ for those of us who are believers in the event of the Rapture of the Church. The Bible says that there will be a river of blood in Revelation chapter 14, verse 20 that will flow two hundred miles long and up to the bridle of a horse. Thats about four and a half feet deep, two hundred miles long, a river of blood virtually if you please, encompassing the land of Israel. It becomes a river of blood. The carnage, not from bombs and tanks and planes, but from a word from the mouth of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
WILLACY: But if the world does end, Gary Frazier believes it wont be tragic for the righteous because theyll be swept to heaven in the Rapture.
GARY FRAZIER: [To group at site] When Christ comes, itll all be over with in a word.
WILLACY: The left behind movies focus on the Rapture, a word not found in the Bible. It refers to those Christians who believe theyll be whisked away to heaven before the Second Coming of Christ. Rapture isnt just a wild idea cooked up by Christians on the fringe. Its embraced by mainstream America. Sixty million left behind movies books and tapes have already been sold in the US alone, prompting prominent evangelist, Jerry Falwell, to brand them as the most single important publishing event since the Bible.
GARY FRAZIER: [To group] God said Im going to destroy every living thing that I have created with exception of Noah and his three sons and their wives.
WILLACY: To these true believers, September 11, the Boxing Day tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and the invasion of Iraq otherwise known as New Babylon all herald the coming of the Rapture. Gary Fraziers message is being lapped up by the thousands of American disciples who follow him to Israel every year.
GARY FRAZIER: [To group] I mean it takes more deaf, dumb and blind faith to believe the stories that they come up with then it takes to just accept the biblical account of what happened.
CINDY FANN: [US Christian Tourist] He was explaining to us that the Bible states that millions or thousands are going to be slaughtered and that the blood is going to be as high as like your horses neck and you know its tragic to think that.
WILLACY: Floating, where Jesus is said to have walked, is another group from Americas bible belt. More than three hundred have joined this tour around the Sea of Galilee led by charismatic church Pastor Barbara Yodel.
BARBARA YODEL: I declare that there shall be a new call to you, to follow even Israel. To stand up for Israel when many are turning their backs on Israel.
WILLACY: For these Christian evangelicals their pilgrimage is a spiritual homecoming. Immersing themselves in the River Jordan as Jesus is said to have done, these true believers also pour out their faith in Israel.
WOMAN #1: I mean its love. Its not just even love, its like adoring kind of love. Its recognition of honouring, we honour our parents.
WOMAN #2: Hallelujah!
WOMAN #3: We just want more of Jesus and weve come here to Israel from Atlanta Georgia because we want to be closer to our Lord and Saviour where He walked the earth. This is where Jesus lived. This is where Jesus was amongst his people. This is like coming home so this is my next step to heaven.
WILLACY: An emotional and spiritual experience is one thing, a psychological disorder altogether another. For some visitors to Jerusalem, the spiritual rapture is overwhelming and ultimately unhinging. Formerly from the United States, Maria Pankaus conduct and demeanour is disturbing. Doctor Moshe Kalian is the chief psychiatrist for the Jerusalem district. [Watching video of Maria Pankau]
Doctor what do you make of Maria the Messiah?
DR MOSHE KALIAN: There is no doubt that she represents the image of what we call Jerusalem Syndrome. The Jerusalem Syndrome what defines it, as I see it is that people with some level of emotional instability arrive in the city as a result of systems of thoughts, visions and hallucinations. And they use Jerusalem as a stage a stage on which they play out their visions their thoughts.
WILLACY: Donning white robes and wandering each day to holy sites to preach, Maria believes that God speaks directly to her.
MARIA THE MESSIAH: When I arrived I came on a donkey because He told me I must come on a donkey this time so I became the king and I came on a donkey and the next day I was the king.
WILLACY: Like most sufferers of Jerusalem Syndrome, Maria has gone without treatment. Only when these wayward pilgrims threaten themselves or public safety, are they taken to hospital. The long time head of the Kfar Shaul Mental Hospital in Jerusalem is Doctor Yair Bar-El.
DR YAIR BAR-EL: They are healthy people without any history of psychological or psychiatric illness, or drugs or alcohol. They arrive in Jerusalem as normal tourists and here they develop the psychotic and imperative response.
DR MOSHE KALIAN: There are very many messiahs, meaning people who feel that they have a messianic mission. From time to time theres a woman who thinks shes the Virgin Mary. Theres the case of the Canadian guy who claimed to be Samson. He was really strong, and even managed to tear out the bars on the locked ward of the hospital, and escape just like Samson.
YITSHAK FHANTICH: They say that if someone talks to God, its okay hes praying but when God talks to you, youve got a problem.
WILLACY: For many years, Yitshak Fhantich was an undercover agent of the Shin Bet, Israels domestic spy organisation. He claims there are now genuine fears that those who are deluded can be dangerous, vulnerable to manipulation by fanatics.
YITSHAK FHANTICH: The Jerusalem Syndrome must concern us for a simple reason messiahs, kings, all sorts of people are walking round here who had the Holy Spirit settle on them when they came to Jerusalem. So maybe they themselves are harmless but theyre definitely open to exploitation.
WILLACY: And the problem is likely to start here, at one of the most controversial religious sites in the world. The Israelis call it the Temple Mount the Palestinians, Haram al-Sharif.
This is the Western Wall, the only remaining structure from the Jewish temple destroyed by the Romans nearly two thousand years ago. Perched right above it, is the third holiest site in Islam, the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque. These icons of Jerusalem provoke hatred among some ultra radical Israeli Jews.
Gershon Salamon leads the Temple Mount Faithful, an extreme Jewish group committed to rebuilding the temple. He wants to tear down the mosques and hes seeking the help of American Christians.
GERSHON SALAMON: [On megaphone] Ill now ask you to tear up the two flags including the Hamas flag. [To camera] The support of the American Evangelists is important, even decisive, in this struggle to rebuild the Temple and finish with the remnant of the Arab conquest of the Temple Mount, Jerusalem and the land of Israel.
WILLACY: To Muslims, talk of removing the mosques is the ultimate provocation, a threat to peace and the very stability of the Middle East. Sheikh Ekrima Sabri is the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, the spiritual leader of millions of Palestinian Muslims.
SHEIK EKRIMA SABRI: We will hold the occupying Israeli power fully responsible for any damage to the al-Aqsa Mosque. As to the reaction if the Mosque is damaged, I cant describe it. It will be immense, and the revenge and uproar would take place not only in Palestine, but all over the world.
WILLACY: Even radical Christians who want the mosques taken down and the temple rebuilt, acknowledge that such a move is certain to trigger an apocalypse.
BARBARA YODER: What would happen if the Jewish world rebuilt the temple? I believe all hell could break out because of the reaction here by the Palestinian and the Islamic world because obviously they dont want to see them flourish in any way and they believe they have a right to the land as much as Israel does.
WILLACY: The Israeli Government has never seriously supported the idea of rebuilding the third temple.
GERSHON SALAMON: We really have thousands of Evangelist Christians who are registered members of our movement and who participate in our marches to the Temple Mount.
YITSHAK FHANTICH: If we go back and think about the Evangelist Christians who support Israel and about their possible exploitation by Israeli militant groups, because of their naivety, and because of their desire and their passion to advance the second coming of their Messiah it is not out of the question that somehow, somewhere the two groups will meet, with a violent outcome. It could be a blow to the Arabs, or to another location in order to change the face of the Middle East.
WILLACY: This isnt a fantasy, its already happened.
NEWS REPORT: The cause of the fire in the al-Aqsa Mosque is not known but Arab leaders blame the Israelis, protested to the United Nations and call for demonstrations around the world.
WILLACY: In 1969, Australian Michael Dennis Rohan set fire to the al-Aqsa Mosque, causing millions of dollars in damage and sparking Palestinian riots. Rohan said he was acting on divine instructions to destroy the mosque so that the Jewish temple could be rebuilt. He was arrested, tried, declared insane and deported to Australia.
About a hundred Christian tourists, mainly Americans, are diagnosed with Jerusalem Syndrome every year. Some are found wandering the desert in hotel bed sheets. Others stride about the holy city singing psalms. While most simple create a spectacle of themselves, Israeli police and intelligence officers keep a close eye on these pilgrims.
The role-playing of these American Christians is more about theatre than theology. Their presence illustrates a bigger and more important issue, the strengthening spiritual and political alliance between Israel and the United States.
BARBARA YODER: I personally believe that President Bush was raised up by God to stand with Israel and to do what hes done. I believe that God sets up leaders and takes them down and I believe he had a mandate. He had a mandate to support Israel. He had a mandate to deal with this part of the world.
SHEIKH EKRIMA SABRI: We understand that Bush supports Israel in its aggression, its arrogance and lies. I believe the ideas that Bush holds will die with his death.
WILLACY: The holy land is a place of immense importance for all Muslims, Jews and Christians a bridge between earth and eternity. Some Christians come here believing they are the Messiah others to await his return. Either way, the destiny of these Americans will be forever shaped by and linked to Jerusalem.
Each year dozens are diagnosed with Jerusalem Syndrome. Some believe theyre the Messiah, others are simply waiting for Armageddon, but most are ordinary God fearing Americans whove come to Israel on a spiritual and political pilgrimage.
The holy city of Jerusalem is a magnet for foreign pilgrims, Christians seeking redemption. Many of those following in the footsteps of Christ are Americans. These two, Rob and Bob, are from California.
BOB: Thats right. He and I are Roman soldiers and he beats him and pulls, yeah he pulls him and I beat him. You know we reverse that role sometimes and Jesus Christ is around here somewhere.
ROB: Yeah hes over there.
BOB: Hes over there.
WILLACY: Jesus, also known as Taulli, is an industrial tools salesman from New Orleans.
TAULLI: Its an honour that I cant even describe. Just do it to praise Him.
WILLACY: Here hes channelling the spirit of Jesus and Jerusalem.
TAULLI: You know its almost . just feel the spirit coming through me. So powerful. I dont . I dont even feel like myself.
WILLACY: These Christians follow the very route its claimed Jesus took to His crucifixion, along the Via Dolorosa and the fourteen Stations of the Cross. Other American Christians come to Israel to see where and hear how the world will come to an end.
GARY FRAZIER: [To group on bus] This is what God can do in the lives of people who will worship Him and Him alone.
WILLACY: Gary Frazier, a self-styled specialist in biblical prophecy is the founder of the Texas based Discovery Ministries.
GARY FRAZIER: [To group on bus] I want to tell you that you have arrived in the most important place in all of the earth. Israel today exists as a miracle of God.
WILLACY: Every year Gary Frazier organises more than two hundred tour groups to Israel.
This is Megiddo, an ancient fortified city, which has seen some of historys bloodiest battles. The Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Israelites and Romans have all fought and died here, but Christians believe this will be the site of humanitys final battle because Megiddo is known by another name Armageddon.
According to the Book of Revelations, this hill will be the scene of an apocalyptic clash between the armies of Christ and Satan, a battle leading to the end of days.
GARY FRAZIER: [To group at site] I believe with all of my heart that were living in the last of the last days, that were on the threshold of the coming of Christ for those of us who are believers in the event of the Rapture of the Church. The Bible says that there will be a river of blood in Revelation chapter 14, verse 20 that will flow two hundred miles long and up to the bridle of a horse. Thats about four and a half feet deep, two hundred miles long, a river of blood virtually if you please, encompassing the land of Israel. It becomes a river of blood. The carnage, not from bombs and tanks and planes, but from a word from the mouth of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
WILLACY: But if the world does end, Gary Frazier believes it wont be tragic for the righteous because theyll be swept to heaven in the Rapture.
GARY FRAZIER: [To group at site] When Christ comes, itll all be over with in a word.
WILLACY: The left behind movies focus on the Rapture, a word not found in the Bible. It refers to those Christians who believe theyll be whisked away to heaven before the Second Coming of Christ. Rapture isnt just a wild idea cooked up by Christians on the fringe. Its embraced by mainstream America. Sixty million left behind movies books and tapes have already been sold in the US alone, prompting prominent evangelist, Jerry Falwell, to brand them as the most single important publishing event since the Bible.
GARY FRAZIER: [To group] God said Im going to destroy every living thing that I have created with exception of Noah and his three sons and their wives.
WILLACY: To these true believers, September 11, the Boxing Day tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and the invasion of Iraq otherwise known as New Babylon all herald the coming of the Rapture. Gary Fraziers message is being lapped up by the thousands of American disciples who follow him to Israel every year.
GARY FRAZIER: [To group] I mean it takes more deaf, dumb and blind faith to believe the stories that they come up with then it takes to just accept the biblical account of what happened.
CINDY FANN: [US Christian Tourist] He was explaining to us that the Bible states that millions or thousands are going to be slaughtered and that the blood is going to be as high as like your horses neck and you know its tragic to think that.
WILLACY: Floating, where Jesus is said to have walked, is another group from Americas bible belt. More than three hundred have joined this tour around the Sea of Galilee led by charismatic church Pastor Barbara Yodel.
BARBARA YODEL: I declare that there shall be a new call to you, to follow even Israel. To stand up for Israel when many are turning their backs on Israel.
WILLACY: For these Christian evangelicals their pilgrimage is a spiritual homecoming. Immersing themselves in the River Jordan as Jesus is said to have done, these true believers also pour out their faith in Israel.
WOMAN #1: I mean its love. Its not just even love, its like adoring kind of love. Its recognition of honouring, we honour our parents.
WOMAN #2: Hallelujah!
WOMAN #3: We just want more of Jesus and weve come here to Israel from Atlanta Georgia because we want to be closer to our Lord and Saviour where He walked the earth. This is where Jesus lived. This is where Jesus was amongst his people. This is like coming home so this is my next step to heaven.
WILLACY: An emotional and spiritual experience is one thing, a psychological disorder altogether another. For some visitors to Jerusalem, the spiritual rapture is overwhelming and ultimately unhinging. Formerly from the United States, Maria Pankaus conduct and demeanour is disturbing. Doctor Moshe Kalian is the chief psychiatrist for the Jerusalem district. [Watching video of Maria Pankau]
Doctor what do you make of Maria the Messiah?
DR MOSHE KALIAN: There is no doubt that she represents the image of what we call Jerusalem Syndrome. The Jerusalem Syndrome what defines it, as I see it is that people with some level of emotional instability arrive in the city as a result of systems of thoughts, visions and hallucinations. And they use Jerusalem as a stage a stage on which they play out their visions their thoughts.
WILLACY: Donning white robes and wandering each day to holy sites to preach, Maria believes that God speaks directly to her.
MARIA THE MESSIAH: When I arrived I came on a donkey because He told me I must come on a donkey this time so I became the king and I came on a donkey and the next day I was the king.
WILLACY: Like most sufferers of Jerusalem Syndrome, Maria has gone without treatment. Only when these wayward pilgrims threaten themselves or public safety, are they taken to hospital. The long time head of the Kfar Shaul Mental Hospital in Jerusalem is Doctor Yair Bar-El.
DR YAIR BAR-EL: They are healthy people without any history of psychological or psychiatric illness, or drugs or alcohol. They arrive in Jerusalem as normal tourists and here they develop the psychotic and imperative response.
DR MOSHE KALIAN: There are very many messiahs, meaning people who feel that they have a messianic mission. From time to time theres a woman who thinks shes the Virgin Mary. Theres the case of the Canadian guy who claimed to be Samson. He was really strong, and even managed to tear out the bars on the locked ward of the hospital, and escape just like Samson.
YITSHAK FHANTICH: They say that if someone talks to God, its okay hes praying but when God talks to you, youve got a problem.
WILLACY: For many years, Yitshak Fhantich was an undercover agent of the Shin Bet, Israels domestic spy organisation. He claims there are now genuine fears that those who are deluded can be dangerous, vulnerable to manipulation by fanatics.
YITSHAK FHANTICH: The Jerusalem Syndrome must concern us for a simple reason messiahs, kings, all sorts of people are walking round here who had the Holy Spirit settle on them when they came to Jerusalem. So maybe they themselves are harmless but theyre definitely open to exploitation.
WILLACY: And the problem is likely to start here, at one of the most controversial religious sites in the world. The Israelis call it the Temple Mount the Palestinians, Haram al-Sharif.
This is the Western Wall, the only remaining structure from the Jewish temple destroyed by the Romans nearly two thousand years ago. Perched right above it, is the third holiest site in Islam, the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque. These icons of Jerusalem provoke hatred among some ultra radical Israeli Jews.
Gershon Salamon leads the Temple Mount Faithful, an extreme Jewish group committed to rebuilding the temple. He wants to tear down the mosques and hes seeking the help of American Christians.
GERSHON SALAMON: [On megaphone] Ill now ask you to tear up the two flags including the Hamas flag. [To camera] The support of the American Evangelists is important, even decisive, in this struggle to rebuild the Temple and finish with the remnant of the Arab conquest of the Temple Mount, Jerusalem and the land of Israel.
WILLACY: To Muslims, talk of removing the mosques is the ultimate provocation, a threat to peace and the very stability of the Middle East. Sheikh Ekrima Sabri is the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, the spiritual leader of millions of Palestinian Muslims.
SHEIK EKRIMA SABRI: We will hold the occupying Israeli power fully responsible for any damage to the al-Aqsa Mosque. As to the reaction if the Mosque is damaged, I cant describe it. It will be immense, and the revenge and uproar would take place not only in Palestine, but all over the world.
WILLACY: Even radical Christians who want the mosques taken down and the temple rebuilt, acknowledge that such a move is certain to trigger an apocalypse.
BARBARA YODER: What would happen if the Jewish world rebuilt the temple? I believe all hell could break out because of the reaction here by the Palestinian and the Islamic world because obviously they dont want to see them flourish in any way and they believe they have a right to the land as much as Israel does.
WILLACY: The Israeli Government has never seriously supported the idea of rebuilding the third temple.
GERSHON SALAMON: We really have thousands of Evangelist Christians who are registered members of our movement and who participate in our marches to the Temple Mount.
YITSHAK FHANTICH: If we go back and think about the Evangelist Christians who support Israel and about their possible exploitation by Israeli militant groups, because of their naivety, and because of their desire and their passion to advance the second coming of their Messiah it is not out of the question that somehow, somewhere the two groups will meet, with a violent outcome. It could be a blow to the Arabs, or to another location in order to change the face of the Middle East.
WILLACY: This isnt a fantasy, its already happened.
NEWS REPORT: The cause of the fire in the al-Aqsa Mosque is not known but Arab leaders blame the Israelis, protested to the United Nations and call for demonstrations around the world.
WILLACY: In 1969, Australian Michael Dennis Rohan set fire to the al-Aqsa Mosque, causing millions of dollars in damage and sparking Palestinian riots. Rohan said he was acting on divine instructions to destroy the mosque so that the Jewish temple could be rebuilt. He was arrested, tried, declared insane and deported to Australia.
About a hundred Christian tourists, mainly Americans, are diagnosed with Jerusalem Syndrome every year. Some are found wandering the desert in hotel bed sheets. Others stride about the holy city singing psalms. While most simple create a spectacle of themselves, Israeli police and intelligence officers keep a close eye on these pilgrims.
The role-playing of these American Christians is more about theatre than theology. Their presence illustrates a bigger and more important issue, the strengthening spiritual and political alliance between Israel and the United States.
BARBARA YODER: I personally believe that President Bush was raised up by God to stand with Israel and to do what hes done. I believe that God sets up leaders and takes them down and I believe he had a mandate. He had a mandate to support Israel. He had a mandate to deal with this part of the world.
SHEIKH EKRIMA SABRI: We understand that Bush supports Israel in its aggression, its arrogance and lies. I believe the ideas that Bush holds will die with his death.
WILLACY: The holy land is a place of immense importance for all Muslims, Jews and Christians a bridge between earth and eternity. Some Christians come here believing they are the Messiah others to await his return. Either way, the destiny of these Americans will be forever shaped by and linked to Jerusalem.