Bid to change title of the Dead Sea is not just a cosmetic move

Published on Saturday 18 October 2008 19:41

IT IS promoted as the largest natural spa on the planet and its minerals are used in cosmetic products which sell on every continent. But the Dead Sea's very name is apparently bad for business.

Amid fears that tourists and users of beauty treatments are being put off, the Israeli government is considering a call for it to be renamed the Salt or Mineral Sea.

One of Israel's leading cosmetic manufacturers, –417, has lodged an official application for the change since "the word 'dead' is not good for business."

"If you were a tourist, would you want to go on vacation to the 'Dead Forest,'" said Moty Friedman, the owner of –417 cosmetics which uses minerals from the Dead Sea in its products.

"When I'm travelling overseas, I'm constantly having to explain to people that it isn't a dead body of water; that there are living organisms."

The Dead Sea's minerals are used in a variety of products, from skin moisturisers to potash for fertilisers. On both sides of the Israeli and Jordanian shores, there are numerous hotels and health resorts which offer spa facilities because the health benefits associated with the mineral content of its waters along with a higher atmospheric pressure.

The chairman of the government's Geographical Names Committee, Professor Moshe Brawer, said that the application would be seriously considered at its next meeting in November, especially because in Hebrew it is called "Yam Ha-Melah" or "Sea of Salt."

"We've been asked to take into account that name 'dead' is a deterrent to tourists and potential customers of cosmetic products," Brawer said, adding a decision could be made by the end of the year.

Professor Brawer said there was a good chance that the 20-member committee would agree to a name change and will also be asked to suggest alternative names with the most likely being either "Salt Sea" or "Mineral Sea".

"When the Mormons established the state of Utah, they used sorts of biblical names for towns and places, and in the case of their capital, it's named after the Dead Sea but with its correct name; Salt Lake," Brawer said.

The name 'Dead Sea' was first used in the first century AD by a Roman scholar, Trogus Pompeius, who upon sighting the inland sea, described it in Latin as "mare mortum". The name stuck and has been translated into numerous languages across the world.

During the British Mandate period in the 1930s, several futile attempts were made to change the sea's name when the Palestine Potash Works – the forerunner of today's Dead Sea Works – was established.

Located at the lowest point on dry land on earth, more than 1,000ft below sea level, the Dead Sea borders both Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories.

It is also the world's second saltiest body of water, with 30% salinity. Only Lake Asal in Djibouti has a greater concentration of salt.

It has attracted visitors for centuries and is one of Israel's and Jordan's most popular tourist attractions. But in recent years, the Dead Sea is shrinking rapidly due to diversion of water from its main source, the River Jordan.

Environmentalists who are battling to save the body of water, also support the idea of a name change.

"The name has been an impediment in our campaign to save the area as people keep asking: 'Why do you want to save something that's dead already?'" said Gidon Bromberg, the Israeli director of Friends of the Earth Middle East.

"It's a unique body of water, surrounded by beautiful oases, that deserves world attention to save and rehabilitate it. But if there is a name change, it should be done in consultation with the Jordanians and Palestinians."

Some are more cynical that a name change would work.

"We've been the first to say that the Dead Sea should be renamed to something more accurate, especially as we market it as the world's largest natural spa, but I don't think this measure will work," said Dov Litvinoff , the mayor of the Tamar-Dead Sea region.

Merav Ayalon, a spokeswoman for Kibbutz Ein Gedi which has a health spa on the shores of the Dead Sea, added: "Even though the Dead Sea is not the right name, do you think after 2,000 or so years, you're going to get people to start calling it by another name?

"But if a name change gets people around the world to realise how much the Dead Sea is in danger, then I'm all for it."