diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index eb5654549..75c157eb1 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -327,8 +327,11 @@
   </patternset>
 
   <patternset id="teststhatfail">
-    <exclude name="${optional.package}/BeanShellScriptTest.java"/>
-    <exclude name="${optional.package}/jdepend/JDependTest.java"/>
+    <!-- Property 'run.failing.tests' should force Ant to run these tests. -->
+    <!-- Because the whole patternset canīt be excluded, you have to add   -->
+    <!-- an unless-attribute on each exclude-element.                      -->
+    <exclude unless="run.failing.tests" name="${optional.package}/BeanShellScriptTest.java"/>
+    <exclude unless="run.failing.tests" name="${optional.package}/jdepend/JDependTest.java"/>
   </patternset>
 
   <!--
@@ -1604,4 +1607,4 @@
           description="--> creates a minimum distribution in ./dist"
           depends="dist-lite"/>
 
-</project>
+</project>
\ No newline at end of file