1500 Christian pilgrims from 35 different countries participated in a mass baptism on Monday in the Jordan River. The religious ceremony was conducted at Yardenit, one of the sites along the Jordan where the Christian messiah Jesus is supposed to have been baptized.Christians from India to the Ukraine were immersed in the waters of the Jordan River.

The environmental group Friends of the Earth – Middle East has urged the Israeli government to close down part of the Jordan River until water quality standards for tourists and pilgrims bathing at the holy site were met. Gidon Bromberg, FoEME's Israel Director has accuses the Tourism Ministry and Nature and Parks Authority of attempting to lower health standards in order to keep the baptism site open.

"Sadly, the lower Jordan River has long suffered from severe mismanagement," Friends of the Earth Middle East said in a statement from Tel Aviv. FoEME said that Israel, Syria and Jordan are diverting 98 per cent of the Jordan's water and are discharging untreated sewage, agricultural run-off, saline water and fish pond effluent into it.

Haaretz