PROVO — Brigham Young University announced Friday that students will return this fall to the school's Jerusalem Center for the first time since 2000.

The decision to hold fall semester classes at the center, located in east Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives, was made after consulting with government and leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which operates BYU.

Administrators had hoped to provide the study abroad program at the center since the program was interrupted in 2000 due to violence in Jerusalem, said Jim Kearl, BYU assistant to the president for the Jerusalem Center.

"We always wanted to return, of course," he said. "Having it closed denied a whole generation of students a marvelous opportunity to study in the area. For young LDS members of the church, the Old and New Testaments just come alive when you study them in their historic and geographic setting. Now looked like a good time to go back."

The announcement to reopen student programs this fall came somewhat as a surprise because Israel remains on the U.S. State Department's travel advisory list, which cautions U.S. citizens to carefully consider the necessity of traveling to the area.

Kearl said that despite the advisory, BYU feels it is safe to bring students back to the Holy Land. The advisory applies more to the West Bank and Gaza, rather than to Israel proper, he said, and the BYU program will limit its travel to the safest areas.

The program might include visits to Jordan or Egypt, but BYU has not yet made a decision.

Kearl said the program will also be more tightly structured this year than in the past. Students accepted for the fall 2006 program will live at the Jerusalem Center and travel to historic sites but will have less free time to wander the streets and will spend more time under direct supervision of center personnel, he said.

Classes will cover ancient and modern Near Eastern history, Near Eastern languages and cultures, and the Gospels in the New Testament.

The center will be staffed this fall by two BYU faculty members, the executive director of the center, an Israeli and the associate director, a Palestinian.

The structure of the program will also be slightly different than in the past. Only about 40 students will be allowed in this fall, whereas more than 150 were selected before the closure, and only BYU juniors and seniors will qualify to apply.

Kearl said BYU set the limitations mainly for safety and staffing reasons. By limiting the numbers to 40, the center can take all the students in one bus.